With the victory of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party in Canada’s general election, the Canadian marijuana industry is also celebrating. Shares for publicly traded marijuana suppliers experienced fantastic gains on Tuesday, as the marijuana market looks to expand with Canada’s new Liberal leaders.
New Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau has long stated that one of his first objectives as Prime Minister would be to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Trudeau promises a system of regulated legal sales and distribution, along with appropriate federal and provincial taxes.
Under current laws, Canadians can only legally access marijuana for medicinal purposes from licensed dispensaries, and they must first be approved to do so.
Now that Trudeau is in office, the marijuana industry in Canada looks to flourish.
Market analyst with Dundee Securities Inc. Aaron Salz said, “You look at pretty much every stock in the space. They’re all up on tremendous volume. It all has to do with the election.”
The medical marijuana industry in Canada currently produces around $80 million every year. Right now, 25 companies are permitted to sell marijuana in the country. Some of these companies are publicly traded, such as Mettrum Health Corp., Aphria Inc. and OrganiGram Holdings Inc.
The potential for a recreational market offers major opportunities of growth for these companies, as some analysts predict that the Canadian marijuana industry could reach a value of anywhere between $4 billion and $5 billion. The current medical marijuana companies are in a fantastic position to take advantage of legalized marijuana.
However, legalized marijuana will not happen overnight in Canada. First, a bill would have to be drafted, and it would then have to be approved by both the Canadian House of Commons and the Canadian Senate. Estimates show that it would take nearly two years for this to happen. And of course, the issue would be hotly debated before any real progress would be made.
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