Investors seem to see Tuesday’s election results as potentially bumping up the timeline on full federal marijuana legalization.

By Wayne Duggan  

Cannabis stocks have been red-hot following Tuesday’s election. The skyrocketing marijuana group has been led by Aurora Cannabis Inc., which is up 135% in the past two days alone.

Voters in New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana legalized recreational marijuana use on Election Day, while South Dakota and Mississippi also legalized medical marijuana.

The new state cannabis laws will expand the legal U.S. marijuana market, but the massive moves in weed stocks suggest something may be brewing that is much larger than the handful of states that voted to legalize on Tuesday.

RELATED: What’s Next For Marijuana Legalization In The United States?

Election Takeaways

On Thursday, DataTrek Research co-founder Jessica Rabe said there are three big-picture takeaways for cannabis stock investors from Tuesday’s election results:

1. One in three Americans now lives in a state in which recreational marijuana is legal. Not only has the latest vote expanded the number of legal cannabis customers, Rabe said it has also applied significant pressures to neighboring states not to follow suit and not miss out on the business opportunities and tax revenues.
2. Cannabis legalization is no longer a “blue state” phenomenon given marijuana measures passed easily in the conservative states of South Dakota, Montana and Mississippi. While more than three out of four Democrats support cannabis legalization, recent polls have found that slightly more than half of Republican voters now support it as well.
3. Even though it appears likely Republicans will maintain control of the Senate, voters in the red states mentioned above are sending a clear message to Washington that cannabis legalization is an increasingly bipartisan, national issue.

“The more states that legalize recreational marijuana — especially populous ones like New Jersey (8.9 million people) and Arizona (7.3 million) this election — the more pressure it puts on the federal government to address the issue,” Rabe said.

RELATED: Cannabis Stocks Rebound As Dust Settles Following US Election

Stocks On The Move

In addition to Aurora, here are some of the other top cannabis stocks that have made the biggest gains in the past two days:

• Tilray Inc. TLRY 20.33% is up 71.6%.
• Cronos Group Inc. CRON 16.24% is up 35.9%.
• Canopy Growth Corp. CGC 10.51% is up 25.1%.

Benzinga’s Take

The ultimate prize for cannabis stock investors isn’t adding a handful of new U.S. states to the mix every few years. The catalyst that could completely change the industry is full U.S. federal legalization, and investors seem to see Tuesday’s election results as potentially bumping up the timeline for that outcome.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been reposted with permission.