ACB'S Joke
How can CNBC book the CEO of the worst-run Canadian Cannabis company to discuss legalization in the U.S when his company will not likely survive in Canada? On Wednesday, CEO Miguel Martin of Aurora Cannabis (ACB) laid out a conservative timeline for full U.S. legalization of marijuana, saying he expected federal approval for medical cannabis products first, with recreational use becoming allowed at least a year after that. In an interview with CNBC, Martin said he was a "strong believer" that medical approval, along with recreational decriminalization, would represent the first stage in making cannabis products legal on the national level. At that point, he expected the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to play a large role in the regulatory process. From there, Martin predicted that it would likely take one or two years to achieve federal legalization of recreational marijuana use. The CEO based his projections on the company's experiences in other parts of the world, including its home market in Canada and places like Germany, Israel, and France. Martin said that Aurora (ACB) could benefit from this controlled rollout because the company has significant experience operating in heavily regulated markets. Still, ACB has dropped nearly 7% YTD, as the sales data in Canada suggest a 41% YoY decline in company revenues YTD.
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Click Here for a link to the interview. |
Arizona Tracker
In July, Arizona had adult-use sales of $54 Million and medical sales of $69 Million for $122 Million. This is a 10% increase over the month prior, versus the overall industry with an increase of 11% sequentially in July. One unique aspect about AZ is that medical sales outpace recreational use sales which is unlike any other state. Suggesting, the rollout of adult use has been very slow. AZ has an impressive $1.4 billion annualized run rate based on the past 3 months of sales. Harvest Health has the largest asset base in the state, which makes up 27% of its total footprint. We recently removed Harvest from our long list and took TCNNF off too.
Congress Under Fire for No Action
Rodney Hood, current board member and former chairman of the federal National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), sharply criticizes Congress for failing to reform marijuana laws. He said that he’s “concerned that the legal and regulatory infrastructure surrounding the cannabis industry is not evolving quickly enough,” and congressional inaction is largely to blame. Hood is calling for creating an interagency group of a financial regulatory agency to develop an approach to cannabis banking. Hood is a longtime regulator at NCUA, a federal agency that provides deposit insurance to credit unions. Such regulators rarely make such open and forceful statements which make his so substantial. However, hood's remarks specifically mention the SAFE act, which would "harmonize" federal and state cannabis laws, so the industry is no longer competing with a handicap. Out of 5,000 federally insured credit unions, only 169 provide banking to marijuana businesses, according to FinCen.
