U.S. pot companies view Canada as land of opportunity
Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press Published Wednesday, July 25, 2018 3:36AM EDT
PORTLAND, Ore. - Green Thumb Industries had a business plan, expertise and plenty of ambition to grow its marijuana business. What the Chicago-based company didn't have was access to enough capital to make it all happen.
So last month, the company with $20 million in revenue from pot shops in seven states turned its gaze north and went public in Canada, where marijuana soon will be broadly legalized nationwide.
The Canadian Securities Exchange is quickly becoming the go-to place for U.S. cannabis companies orphaned by their own stock exchanges because the U.S. government still considers marijuana an illegal drug.
Many more U.S. marijuana companies are lined up to join them as the U.S. industry quickly expands. Acreage Holdings, one of the United States' largest vertically integrated cannabis companies, announced Monday it will list on the Canadian Securities Exchange this fall because it's become the "exchange of choice for U.S. companies like ours."
"There's pent-up demand all over the world, and all over in the U.S., and it's all getting forced into Canada," said Troy Dayton, chief executive of The Arcview Group, an Oakland, California-based cannabis investment and market research firm.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/business/u-s-pot-companies-view-canada-as-land-of-opportunity-1.4026909
