The future for cannabis on the world stage keeps getting brighter. In the latest developments, Tilray, a producer of premium cannabis, became the first company to start an initial public offering on Nasdaq, giving their stock a 30+ percent boost and lifting up the cannabis industry as a whole.
Tilray is based in Canada’s British Columbia, however, they are governed by the U.S. entity Privateer Holdings. They raised over $150 million in revenue in the IPO and plan on using the funds to further expand their production.
They aren’t the first cannabis company to enter into the U.S. stock exchange, but they are the first to do so with an IPO, and that could go a long way in further legitimizing and normalizing the marijuana sector.
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John Kagia is an analyst for New Frontier Data, a cannabis market research firm. He told the Associated Press, “It’s another high-profile marker of how the cannabis industry is maturing and professionalizing.”
The company may be trading in the U.S., but they aren’t doing any business within its borders as cannabis remains a Schedule I drug, making it illegal across the board on a federal level. On the plus side, states have been able to vote in their own laws and now well over half of the country has access to either medical or recreational cannabis, but the federal scheduling still keeps some important players at bay, like banking institutions and savvy Canadian pot producers.
Canada is set to implement their legalization statutes in October, launching a whole new industry. They have had medical marijuana for some time, but they will be only the second country in the world to have adult use cannabis legalized across the board.
Once the U.S. finally lets go of the crumbling vestiges of a failed drug war, we should see the extreme scheduling go by the wayside and also see cannabis become legal in all 50 states. It sounds ambitious, but if our neighbors to the north have taught us anything about cannabis dealings, it’s that the plant can and should be legalized broadly, regulated and safe for all.
Excitingly, Tilray won’t be simply doing business in Canada and trading in the U.S. The company is on the cutting edge of legally transporting cannabis to other countries. For example, they were the first to export medical marijuana to places in Europe, Africa, South America and Australia.
Cannabis is becoming ripe for global commerce as the hottest “new” commodity and Tilray had the wherewithal to see it coming and grab onto the reins early.
