If you’re still looking for that ground-floor investment opportunity with a long-term approach, you might consider companies in the cannabis industry. Depending on who you talk to, federal legalization of recreational-use marijuana in the U.S. is…
not far off. In the meantime, states are jumping one by one onto the legalization train.
Marijuana companies are vying for position in what is becoming a massive market opportunity across the U.S. As this happens, businesses with greater funding are gobbling up smaller counterparts in an effort to gain entry into new territories, as well as to expand their presence in areas where they’re already operating.
Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries (OTC:GTBIF) has been doing a little of both. Most recently, it has begun targeting a new, expanding market in the Northeast, in a state that has already legalized marijuana for medical use and is halfway to approval of recreational-use legalization.
Behind the news
In June of this year, the Rhode Island Senate voted 29-9 to legalize adult recreational-use marijuana. The state decriminalized marijuana in 2012 and has allowed medical marijuana use since 2006. Now the state’s House is planning a vote for late summer or early fall on a bill to legalize marijuana for recreational use. (Interestingly, the House vote is being delayed in part because of a lack of sufficient air conditioning in the State House during the hotter time period between August and late September.)
If it passes, which is expected, Rhode Island will become the 20th U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana. House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi has said that he believes that legalization is inevitable and that it could happen as soon as late September or early October.
A timely acquisition
On Aug. 2, Green Thumb acquired Mobley Pain Management and Wellness Center and Canwell Processing. By doing so, the company secured one of only three vertically integrated licenses in the state of Rhode Island, which came by way of Summit Compassionate Medical Center, which had contract interests with Mobley and Canwell. The vertically integrated license allows Green Thumb to…
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