Cannabis stocks pop on new legalization attempts

What do most Americans want? Cannabis legalization — with an all-time high agreement from 60% of adults.

Republican-led efforts to legalize cannabis has the industry on the move. While this isn’t an immediate path to legalization, it does have big implications…

What’s the big deal? The cannabis industry has been on a downwards spiral since Feb — with the industry down over 50%. A round of news is getting the industry excited:

• Yesterday, Republican Nancy Mace, introduced a new bill to legalize cannabis — regulating it like alcohol, imposing a 3% excise tax and erasing criminal records.
• Big cannabis companies are backing a legalization campaign — featuring Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogan rallying supporters to pressure congressional reps for action.

Politics in the way: The industry doesn’t expect any significant reforms to be made in 2022. Several legalization bills already failed to gain traction this year from lack of support by both parties — which is unlikely to change in the current Congress.

• According to one cannabis CEO (via BBG), Democrats used cannabis legalization to boost campaign efforts — but failed to follow through.
• Now, several Republicans are warming up to cannabis legalization — as a potential move to court Democratic cannabis supporters.

What’s changing this time? With more Republican support, a compromise could be made — which would set up the industry for legalization.

US cannabis sales received a pandemic boost and sales continue to accelerate:

• Cannabis sales hit $20B in 2020 and is expected to grow 30% to $26B in 2021.
• Expected to hit $46B by 2025 — making it larger than the craft beer industry.

The ETF way: The AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (NYSE:MSOS) — a way for US investors to access US cannabis stocks which only trade on the Canadian or OTC exchange — is up 11% in the past month.