Marijuana News Today: Cannabis Stocks Rise, Medical Pot Grows

Marijuana News Today

The marijuana news today is once again taking a positive turn after Monday’s horrible stock market performance, with several stocks in the black. Meanwhile, the expansion of medical marijuana continues.

We’ll tackle the medical pot issue first. One of the most intriguing areas for marijuana investors lies in the medical field.

Now this may sound counterintuitive, as recreational marijuana gets all the love these days. And that makes sense. Medical pot has been legal in some jurisdictions for decades. It’s simply not as “sexy” as recreational marijuana, which is a new and quickly growing market.

But that would be a misreading of the situation.

You see, medical cannabis was for a long time just recreational pot in disguise. There is no shortage of Californians who will tell you that they obtained a medical marijuana card for “illnesses” that weren’t 100% genuine.

It was a way to game an unfair system that prohibited marijuana as a recreational drug but allowed it to be prescribed for a variety of low-level afflictions that were easy to mimic or impossible to confirm.

Fast-forward to today and medical cannabis is even more widespread, legally available in 33 U.S. states plus D.C. But now that recreational pot is also more widely available—11 U.S. states, D.C., and Canada—we’re going to see medical marijuana expand legitimately as a remedy for a variety of illnesses, rather than as a cover for casual pot users.

We already saw the first cannabis pharmaceutical drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) become available last year. And as time goes on and research grows around newly legalized pot, we’re going to see more and more medical applications open up for marijuana.

One big area that I’ve written about extensively is the pain management sector, currently dominated by highly-addictive painkillers that have played no small part in the opioid epidemic that has swept the U.S. and many other countries. Medical marijuana operating in this sector would not only save lives but make marijuana companies a lot of money.

Another area that’s being explored is in dealing with insomnia. Again, this is an area where the current roster of drugs are considered—to varying degrees— to be dangerous. Overdoses on sleeping pills are not uncommon.

Enter the possibility that marijuana could be used to treat insomnia. (Source: “Does marijuana work better than sleeping pills for insomnia?,” The GrowthOp, August 21, 2019.)

Similar to the opioid problem, marijuana could be a silver bullet of sorts. Not only would cannabis help treat the illness (and by virtue make marijuana companies a lot of money), but it could also curb the spread of deleterious medications.

It’s a win-win and one that many medical marijuana companies are banking on.

Since cannabis is fairly safe for long-term use (or at least, no study has proven otherwise yet), pot could be a suitable replacement for a whole variety of damaging drugs. And if that comes to pass, expect to see the marijuana market make another huge leap forward.

IIPR Stock

Speaking of huge leaps forward, the marijuana news today has us looking at a couple of pot stocks that are on the rise again—a nice change of pace from the beginning of the week.

Well, to be fair to this particular pot stock, it actually rose on August 19 rather than fall.

And now Innovative Industrial Properties Inc (NYSE:IIPR) is surging again, up two percent. IIPR stock has gained 12% over the past five days, an especially impressive number when you consider just how smashed so many other pot stocks were early this week.

Innovative Industrial Properties, a marijuana real estate investment trust (REIT), continues to be among the best companies out there for investors to take advantage of.

IIPR not only continues to see growth even in the harshest of times, but also pays out a healthy and growing dividend to investors. This is a company that has proven time and time again that it’s worth a serious look.

Innovative Industrial Properties stock has shown resilience and the ability to see massive gains (it’s up by more than 200% from a year ago). That combination is rare to find and makes this stock truly special.

I have full confidence that IIPR stock could easily regain its height before the end of 2019, seeing 20%–30% gains at minimum (and likely quite a bit more). Combined with its ability to weather the downturns in the marijuana market, you have a very strong pot stock.

TLRY Stock

From strength to strength, let’s now take a look at Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY). Tilray stock was one of the hardest hit on Monday, and it has long been one of the marijuana stocks most vulnerable to market downturns, due to its overvaluation early in its lifespan on the public market.

TLRY stock, however, is currently in a good place in terms of valuation (finally), and that makes its future fairly easy to predict.

While I wouldn’t name Tilray as one of the top pot stocks (there’s simply too much ill will toward the company from investors who are still not over the stock’s huge descent over the past year), that doesn’t mean there isn’t potential.

Right now, Tilray stock is holding at a solid $30.00 price point. Whenever it dips below that price, it doesn’t stay down for long. And whenever it surpasses that level, it often falls back to the baseline in short order.

TLRY stock is holding true to that model today, climbing three percent to inch past the $30.00 mark. Over the last five days, the stock has dropped significantly, losing 22.5%.

Still, knowing that the $30.00 baseline is likely to hold for a while, short-term investors can consider Tilray stock when it falls below that price and be fairly confident that it will rise again. On the flip side, short-sellers could bet against the stock whenever it goes beyond the $30.00 mark.

Overall, Tilray has a lot of ground to make up in order to become a strong long-term investment, but for now, it’s a fairly predictable stock—which is nice in these times of uncertainty.

IIPR and TLRY Stock Performances

The performances of IIPR stock (black line) and TLRY stock (blue line) over the past week are seen on the chart below:

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com

Analyst Take

The marijuana news today has us excited about the future of medical marijuana in treating afflictions like insomnia.

And on the pot stock market, we’re seeing IIPR stock continue to impress while TLRY stock staged a strong rally to get to its $30.00 price point.