Marijuana has been extremely lucrative for those who have gotten involved due to the quickly changing legislative moves that have gone underway around the country. With one of the main drivers of the market being Canada, it seems like the North American cannabis market has no where to go but up.
Canada has had marijuana legalized since 2001 for medical use, which means they have quite a head start against the U.S. for companies looking to get into the cannabis industry, but that does not mean that we are not trying to catch up. Currently, the U.S. has 29 states that have some sort of legislation for marijuana with nine of those including the District of Columbia, having cannabis legalized for recreational use. Federally, the plant is still illegal in America which presents a small challenge at this point for companies looking to grow their businesses in this country. The good news is that around 80% of the country according to some polls, shows that they favor legalization of cannabis for medical use.
Many companies in the industry have shown a massive amount of growth. The market still shows that there is a lot of room to grow given that the marijuana has yet to be legalized on the aforementioned federal level.
One of the largest opportunities for marijuana continues to be from the pharmaceutical side of the plant. Pharmaceutical’s as an industry represents billions of dollars together, and marijuana’s place in that market has yet to be realized. New prescription drugs being made from the plant are working to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which could become a massive step forward in the fight for getting patients the drugs they need.
One of the biggest companies in the pharmaceutical side of marijuana continues to be GW Pharmaceuticals. GW helped to produce a medicine known as Epidiolex, which is made from CBD, one of the active ingredients in cannabis. The drug has shown to be an effective medicine to combat certain ailments such as epilepsy and more. Adding CBD to certain anti-seizure drugs can help to raise its success rate by around 41%.
One of the main things that continues to stand in the way of these companies growing is the federal government. As a Schedule One narcotic, it has become difficult to research the drug in a controlled setting. As mentioned previously, the hopes are that this will change in the near future which will help to present a new opportunity for many companies to come in and build out businesses. This has however done a positive thing for the industry. Because the plant has been illegal for around 40 years now, many companies have been hiding in the woodworks, hoping to grow their businesses as soon as the market is legalized. With legalization happening on a state by state case, the build up of companies has led to a boom in the market on cannabis. This boom continues to be one of the driving factors in why the market as a whole is doing so well.
Stocks and investments in the marijuana industry have shown to be up as much as 400% since the same time period during 2017. Which the market growing at such a rapid pace, the future seems to be extremely exciting for the market. As more and more states find ways to decriminalize and legalize the plant, and the hopes of federal legislation come to fruition, the opportunities for legal pot will help to grow th eindustry into what could become a large rival for pharmaceuticals.
Only time will tell what happens as we move further into the new year and into the next couple of years. The hopes are high that cannabis will continue to boom as an industry, helping those who need it, and helping businesses to grow.
MAPH Enterprises, LLC | (305) 414-0128 | 1501 Venera Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33146 | new@marijuanastocks.com
