Marijuana Business Magazine April 2020

Marijuana Business Magazine | April 2020 28 Coronavirus Compounds Financial Pressures, May Provide Investor Opportunity As the coronavirus rattles stock markets around the world, it’s making it harder for cannabis companies to raise money from investors in a tight funding environment. “We could even see good companies start to fail because their access to capital is getting super tight,” said Morgan Paxhia, managing director of San Francis- co-based Poseidon Asset Management. Capital was already scarce in the cannabis industry because marijuana-sector stocks began plummeting about a year ago, due largely to overly hyped performances sold to investors and underperformance by many publicly traded MJ businesses. “The public markets are more susceptible to the coronavirus and the impact around it, because it’s short term,” said Matt Karnes, the founder of GreenWave Advi- sors in New York. But some marijuana financial experts see a possible sil- ver lining for investors: an opportunity to buy—or at least get a chunk of—some companies on the cheap. “It means we’re getting very attractive, rational valua- tions,” Paxhia said. Amid Coronavirus, Canadian Cannabis Stores See ‘Unprecedented’ Sales Cannabis stores in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec reported “unprecedented demand” as Canada hunkered down to fight a worsening coronavirus outbreak. IndustryDevelopments | International & State National & International News Countries included have passed legislation at the federal level and must fulfill at least one of the following criteria: • Cultivation, manufacture or sale of medical and/or recreational cannabis allowed. • Doctors can prescribe medical cannabis. • Import and/or export of medical cannabis allowed. High: Countries at the forefront of the global industry. Frameworks are established, and adoption is well underway. Medium: Implementation has begun but is still limited or restricted; lots of room for the market to develop. Low: Legislation has been passed, but implementation is very limited or nonexistent. Decriminalization is not included. MAP LEGEND High level of medical development/implementation Medium level of medical development/implementation Low level of medical development/implementation Other - federally illegal but unique circumstances Recreational