‘There’s no stopping the industry now’: Democratic control is a big win for marijuana

February 1, 2021
AggregatedNews
Policy & Legal
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The day after Democrats swept both Senate seats in the Georgia runoff election — giving them a slim majority and installing pro-marijuana legalization leaders in the upper chamber — Curaleaf Chair Boris Jordan decided to try something big.

“I literally called my bankers and I said, ‘Guys, I think this is going to be a big change. Let’s do an [overnight] offering,’” Jordan recalled.

Curaleaf, America’s largest cannabis company, put over 16 million shares on the market overnight and brought in $300 million — in equity and debt sales — in under 24 hours.

The company’s payday foreshadows how the entire cannabis industry is poised for growth and consolidation as Democrats take full control of the federal government. Companies are positioning themselves for the greater likelihood that federal cannabis restrictions will be loosened significantly.

Sales are already booming. Cannabis sales hit $20 billion last year — a 50 percent jump over 2019. Legalization continues to spread across the country, with more than one-third of Americans now living in states where marijuana is fully legal.

“There’s no stopping the industry now,” said Andrew Kline, who recently joined the law firm Perkins Coie after serving as public policy director for the National Cannabis Industry Association. “The bigger players are going to be interested in acquiring smaller companies and becoming multi-state operators or expanding their footprint in different states.” [Read more at Politico]