America loves football. It’s a $14 billion industry. So I couldn’t believe it when I saw that analysts believe the marijuana industry will be bigger than football by 2020.
Oh, come on! That’s just three years away. My gut instinct was to challenge that call.
But it’s true. At least, if the projections are right from research companies Arcview Market Research and GreenWave Advisors. Both companies think that the marijuana industry will be bigger than football by 2020.
Here are the numbers:
Arcview says the U.S. marijuana market grew revenue of $6.7 billion in 2016. Revenues are increasing 31%. Project that forward, and it becomes $22.8 billion in 2020. Looks like Team Pot could make that yardage.
In fact, the THC train is just getting rolling. California just legalized pot, and it could be the world’s sixth-biggest economy if it was standing on its own two Birkenstocks.
And here’s an eye-opener: Those growth estimates may be too low. Cowen and Co. thinks the California market alone could push total U.S. marijuana revenue to $50 billion by 2026.
To me, this is making marijuana a megatrend. A megatrend is a long-lasting trend that takes years to develop and causes big shifts in the world, culture, and economies.
These were some of the things on my mind when I went to the Southeast Cannabis Conference and Expo in Fort Lauderdale. I wasn’t there for the CBD-infused gummy worms. I was there for the “investment track”. And it was fascinating.
Scott Greiper, of Viridian Capital Advisors, presented his view as a U.S. money manager. He has clients lining up to put money to work in Canada. That’s because Canada, which permitted medical marijuana in 2001, will go fully legal for recreational use in July 2018.
Greiper explained that some of his clients were fund managers themselves. Because of the U.S. federal prohibition against pot, they couldn’t put their funds’ money to work in marijuana. But these sharp guys saw the potential. So they wanted to put their OWN money to work deep in the weeds.
There were other interesting presentations. But one that really caught my eye was Brett Allen, of The Green Organic Dutchman (TGOD), a Canadian pot grower.
Allen is part of a management team that acquired TGOD after building and selling two other pot-related businesses.
That really caught my attention. That’s one of the boxes I like to check when scrutinizing marijuana stocks. I want management that successfully built and sold another business, then pivoted to pot.
That’s because I know they’ll put shareholders first. And that they have a track record of success.
Allen explained that growing marijuana in Canada is lucrative. So much so that his group has put together an investment fund of their own.
And guess where they’re putting that money to work? In the U.S. TGOD sees that operations across the U.S. are fragmented. They’re finding value. They think the future could be bright indeed.
If Allen and people like him are right, marijuana has just started to put its game face on. It will leave football in the dust, and take home the trophy.
And what if there ARE plenty of values in the U.S. marijuana market?
Then that means the trip I’m on right now could be very fruitful indeed.
Where am I? In Denver. Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in January, 2014. That makes Denver the “Mile-High City” indeed.
Sales are booming. In fact, combined medical- and recreational-marijuana sales in January and February of this year totaled more than $235 million. That’s up 30% from the same period in 2016.
And this booming business has made Denver a hotbed for all sorts of budding marijuana businesses. Many of them listed on stock exchanges.
I’ve set up some meetings, and I hope to make more. It should be a busy week.
You can bet I’ll be coming back from Denver with some great investment ideas. It’s still early in the first quarter for America’s marijuana industry. We have a long way to go. I’m sure we run up the score with bushels of profits.
All the best,
Sean
Sonny August 28, 2017
did you get back yet Sean
Barry Gruver June 26, 2017
My argument is not so much with the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes but with the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes. My understanding is that marijuana is an “entry” drug which often leads to more dangerous, highly addictive drug use. Also, I understand that there are increasing problems with people in Denver being high on marijuana. I, for one, will not invest in anything marijuana-related. It’s socially irresponsible.
Barry Gruver
Dan June 23, 2017
The FED has to unwind its balance sheet now and the fiscal policy is not compensating when taxes aew lowered and the resulting budget is reduced as well, There for, a big recession by 2019 will result.
James Summers June 23, 2017
Sean, will you soon be providing investment options on U.S. trading symbols?
Thanks
Ron
Sean Brodrick June 27, 2017
Hi, Ron. There are marijuana-related stocks trading in the U.S. Some are on the big exchanges, some are on the OTC. We’ll cover those, and Canadian listings, too.
Robert Schubring June 23, 2017
Meanwhile the real action is in pharmaceutical applications for the cannabis plant’s active ingredients. Israeli researchers have been at it for most of a decade and are grabbing most of the US patents. A lot of people hold dangerous occupations, in which they can’t risk being “high” on the job…but they shouldn’t be symptomatic of whatever ails them, either.
Great gobs of money keep pouring out of the George Soros Propaganda Machine, trumping up the notion that some vast Wall Street conspiracy seeks to monopolize the cannabis plant and force Joe Sixpack to pay money for the benefits, instead of growing some cannabis plants in his garden to get those benefits.
And it’s pure garbage.
If a person with epilepsy can control their seizures with a pill and become safe to drive an auto down the highway, that’s a revolutionary improvement in that person’s quality of life. They don’t want to be high while driving down the highway…that’s dangerous. They do want to be in control, while driving on the highway. Which is precisely what some of the new Pharma-grade cannabis pills will make possible.
Soros would rather invest in propaganda and incite people to riot, than invest in things that actually benefit people. Which is why I don’t seek his investment advice.
Sean Brodrick June 27, 2017
Lucky for you, Bob, George Soros isn’t writing for the Edelson Institute. I’ll be the one covering cannabis here. I agree with you that Big Pharma is trying to suppress legalization. And yes, it’s because they’d rather sell us expensive drugs.
mjk90620 June 23, 2017
What a disaster.Just like cigarettes in the 1940’s.Trendiness overwhelms common sense.Just one more reason the U.S. secular decline should continue.Hope some crazy cell phone junkie and now,pot smoker,doesn’t run me and my bike over.
gbh June 22, 2017
The organization of your websites need a major user friendly fix. I am very busy right now. When I get an alert on my cell from either E-Trader or Gold MM, I cannot directly go to the homepage of the service and easily find it — even on the next day. The title headings that you link on should include the date of issue for sure. Otherwise, I am taken to something a year or two old. The date also must be under the title of the full article (that seems to be there).
On getting to the alerts quickly, can you make it so that it is possible to have an “alert only” link that could be bookmarked that would contain the recent alerts only (separate one for each of the services)? That way I also wouldn’t have to wander through everything on the service’s main website trying to find the last alert.
Thanks, I know it has been a very busy time and rough losing Larry. (I’ve been with Weiss Group and Real WR for many years). Thanks again for all your hard work.
Van June 21, 2017
My cousin was a marijuana addict as a teenager and is now almost brain dead and doesn’t know right from wrong. A lie is the truth just like ISIS. I am afraid of the direction that recreational marijuana is taking our nation.
Sean Brodrick June 21, 2017
I think you’ll find it hard to find board-certified doctors who recognize “marijuana addiction.” Most say it doesn’t exist. Perhaps your cousin used other, more harmful drugs as well? I’m sorry for your cousin. He doesn’t enter into the story we’re talking about.
James Summers June 23, 2017
Van, I offer my thoughts and prayers for your cousin as did Sean.
Unfortunately the world has replaced the word GOD with GOV, and this fixation on marijuana is one of many ways that Satan is introducing his evil actions that are virtually unabated. Man chasing money and Satan chasing man.
Not going to end well!
mjk90620 June 23, 2017
Hope it doesn’t take decades to find out how much harm marijuana is going to do to the nation.
Alan Woodman June 23, 2017
I’m also discouraged to see this country embracing weed as the financial wave of the future.
I know whenever I say this someone will always counter the argument with the liquor industry.
I just wonder how much regulation will accompany the pot industry. I believe in the future we’ll have not only the serious alcoholism problem to deal with but increased drug addiction as well.
Sean Brodrick June 27, 2017
There already is a serious drug addiction problem in this country. It’s addiction to prescription drugs. And it’s deadly, especially when those drugs are opiods. On the other hand, many people are substituting marijuana for opiods. And drug overdose deaths are plunging. My point is, I think you’re worrying too much about the wrong thing. Good luck, though. Sincerely, Sean
Stephen Ettinger June 21, 2017
This is fo rSean B.
We as readers have invested money and time to receive your e-mails, and our monthly publications to which we subscribe. For 4 months now I have been reading like so many (For me it’s been years) about the Budding Marijuana Business and the companies that stand to profit handsomely. I have yet as a subscriber received any intel with specifics on the companies you and your publication recommend we take a look at. We do pay for info that we have to disseminate, but it does save time. there are hundreds of pot companies out there, and no one that works 14 hours a day like myself 6 days a week has the time to do the intense research to find out, who is legit, and who is bs with no business and no revenue streams to write about. I have reached out every time you write an article about a weed that gorws in the ground worth quite a lot of money, and have yet to receive 1 specific recommendation. What is the deal Sean?
S. S. ETTINGER
Sean Brodrick June 21, 2017
Don’t worry, Mr. Ettinger. The specifics are coming. For those with the courage to grasp at the opportunities in front of them.
Steve Nellissen June 21, 2017
Great. Which stocks are not over valued?
Sean Brodrick June 21, 2017
You’ll have a chance to subscribe and get my specific picks. Thanks.