Marijuana News Today: New Poll Shows Support in U.S. for Pot Legalization

Marijuana News Today

The marijuana news today has us once again transfixed on that all-important turning point for pot stocks: U.S. marijuana legalization. A new poll is showing once again that a supermajority of American support weed reform.

Gallup, Inc. released a poll showing that favorability of marijuana legalization has remained firm in the U.S. since it released a similar study in 2018.

Two-thirds of American now support cannabis legalization, in keeping with last year’s numbers. More impressively, those numbers represent majorities in three major political categories: Democrat (76%), Republican (51%) and Independent (68%). (Source: “Vaping Injury Outbreak Hasn’t Hurt Marijuana Legalization Support, Gallup Poll Shows,” Forbes, October 23, 2019.)

The most important number there, in my mind, is that 51% of Republicans now favor some form of marijuana legalization.

Considering that the Democratic Party is now painting itself as the party of marijuana reform, with almost all of its major candidates for president being pro-legalization, the fact that a majority of Republicans also favor this approach bodes well for a bill’s viability in Congress.

Right now, one of the major hurdles facing marijuana legalization in the U.S. is the Senate. While the House is controlled by Democrats and could likely muster the votes for marijuana legalization, the Senate is a different story.

It’s not even that there isn’t enough support to pass a bill (there are likely enough Democrats and Republicans who could come together and see the bill approved). Much of the problem lies with Senator Mitch McConnell.

The Senate majority leader has been uninterested in looking at any marijuana reform. And considering that McConnell, being majority leader, has immense amounts of power in the Senate, he can effectively become a one-man blockade.

The next move, then, for U.S. marijuana legalization would be for McConnell to either be deposed by a Democratic majority or retire and be replaced by a fresher-faced Republican senator who perhaps isn’t as staunchly anti-pot.

Political machinations aside, the big takeaway from the Gallup poll is that marijuana is popular among U.S. voters, and that could mean more state-level legalization is incoming.

And I’ll reiterate this for the umpteenth time: federal U.S. marijuana legalization would see a surge in marijuana stock prices reminiscent of the early days of Canadian marijuana legalization, with triple-digit gains likely.

One of the benefits of the current downturn in the marijuana stock market is that pot stocks are now poised to see even bigger gains than they otherwise would have experienced when U.S. marijuana legalization arrives.

Having now fallen to bargain prices, there is a lot of room for massive rises in the coming months and years. With that, U.S. marijuana legalization would be the perfect catalyst to speed along that growth.

CRON Stock

The marijuana news today as it pertains to the stock market is rather positive as well. Or at least, it’s certainly better than it has been in the recent past.

Many pot stocks have remained flat today or have seen several points of growth. Considering how hard the market has been hit by the recent correction, that’s very good news indeed.

On top of that, we have some support from Wall Street for select pot stocks, which is also welcome news.

One company in particular, Cronos Group Inc (NASDAQ:CRON) has been the recipient of goodwill from Wall Street over the past several days, translating to share-price growth.

CRON stock gained one percent in early-morning trading today.

And earlier this week, the stock spiked as high as by five percent after Stifel Financial Corp (NYSE:SF) analyst Andrew Carter upgraded Cronos stock from “hold” to “buy” and lowered his price target from $16.50 to $14.00. (Source: “A Wall Street analyst has crowned Canadian cannabis company Cronos Group a ‘new king in the north’ and upgraded its shares to ‘buy’ (CRON),” Markets Insider, October 18, 2019.)

This naturally helped send CRON stock higher, as confidence from Wall Street is almost always a boon for a company.

Carter echoed things I’ve long said in this column, namely that legal marijuana is a massive hundred-billion-dollar industry that is just getting started.

“We believe renewed investor enthusiasm is inevitable as we consider the $200 billion global opportunity driven by regulatory and demographic tailwinds,” wrote Carter. (Source: Ibid.)

As the legal cannabis industry continues to grow and gain footholds in countries around the globe, we’re going to see share prices climb. Investors who are abandoning ship now are likely going to look silly later when the pot stock market is once again sailing strong.

Considering their current bargain prices, stocks like Cronos Group are poised to see massive gains in short periods when the marijuana recovery eventually sets in.

TLRY Stock

Another marijuana stock doing well today is Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY). Tilray stock gained a point in early-morning trading today. TLRY stock is also up about three percent over the past five days.

Good news for  Tilray stock investors came by way of the company’s foray into the cannabis-infused beverage market. The company is looking to make its cannabidiol (CBD)-infused drinks available in Canada as soon as December. (Source: “Tilray, Budweiser parent to launch CBD drinks in late 2019,” BNN Bloomberg, October 10, 2019.)

To do that, Tilray has partnered with Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (NYSE:BUD), the largest brewer in the world, which sells many popular beer brands like “Corona” and “Budweiser.”

The joint venture would see CBD-infused drinks hit store shelves and potentially open up a whole new revenue stream for both companies. After all, there is a huge amount of potential within cannabis-infused beverages.

Couple that with the growing interest in CBD around the world—not to mention that the U.S. has legalized CBD, so we could also see this product land in America in the not-too-distant future—and you have what may turn out to be one of the stronger plays in the marijuana market in some time.

And of course, if things go well with the CBD-infused beverages, then Tilray will see the benefits on its next quarterly report, juicing earnings and thereby juicing  TLRY stock prices.

Tilray stock is in a very strong position to see big gains in the coming months if the company’s rollout of CBD drinks goes smoothly.

CRON & TLRY Stock Performances

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

Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com

Analyst Take

The marijuana news today was a nice reprieve from some of the doom and gloom that has plagued the industry as of late. While I’m still very bullish on pot stocks long-term, there’s no disputing that marijuana stocks have been on a bumpy ride  lately.

But once again, today’s news demonstrates that the future of the cannabis industry is still very bright. Pot stocks are not only poised to recover, they are poised to see massive growth in the coming years as the legal pot sector expands into a global empire.