How 2018 Is Shaping the Future of American Cannabis Law

Marijuana has very quickly become the talk of the town throughout the U.S. In the past year alone, we have seen tremendous improvements in the overall sentiment of the substance as well as the hopes for new laws throughout the nation. Various milestones in the past year should help to be able to predict what the future of cannabis can look like if things continue to move in its favor.

One of the biggest changes this year occurred as Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) became the first marijuana business to list on a prestigious exchange. Well this may not seem like a huge deal, it represented a major paradigm shift in the way we as a country view cannabis. The company was able to raise over $150 million, with their shares rising substantially. The increase in this share price has helped to illustrate the public desire for cannabis to become as mainstream as possible.

As October of this year hit, we saw Canada legalize the use of recreational cannabis throughout the nation. This again created a major paradigm shift as well as a domino effect throughout the U.S. and around the world. Canada quickly became an example of how widespread cannabis law can in fact work in the nation and the people’s favor.

Towards the end of the year, the midterm elections in the U.S. again affirmed the public desire for marijuana as Michigan became the first state in the Midwest to legalize the use of recreational cannabis. In addition to this, Missouri and Utah both voted to legalize the medicinal use of cannabis.

One of the biggest factors to the reshaping of the cannabis market came in the form of several big-name investors into the industry. The company Altria which is the producer of Marlboro cigarettes, recently invested around $2.4 billion in the Canadian marijuana business Cronos Group. (NASDAQ:CRON). This of course could not be mentioned without noting the $4 billion investment put into the company Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE:CGC) by the major beverage producer Constellation Brands. Investments like these have not only helped to produce new business models for the future of the industry, but they have also brought a newfound level of trust into the cannabis market.

Trust is something that has largely been overlooked in recent times throughout the marijuana space. Cannabis has long been considered to be quite taboo across media and the older generation. With massive investments like these brought in by institutional businesses in the U.S., it seems as though the public is now more able than ever to believe in the future of cannabis.

Of course, we are not without doubts about the industry as legislation still is waiting in the woodworks. For now however, cannabis seems as though it is on the right path to becoming one of the largest industries in the nation. The only aspect in the way is federal law, which also seems to be a hotly debated and quickly shifting topic in the national mind.