The SEC, the government watchdog, and TD Ameritrade, the self-service brokerage firm, recently issued warnings about buying into the pot industry hype.
Watch out! they tell us. The pot industry is filled with high-flying stocks, overbought companies, and outright scams. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
I think we’ll find our way out of the forest, thank you very much.
I wonder how such companies would compare to Pets.com from the 1990s, or Enron, or even WorldCom, for that matter.
Was TD Ameritrade giving investors a heads-up on internet stocks in the 1990s or all stocks in 2008? And where was the SEC, oh, ever?
This is the same organization that audited Bernie Madoff three times and gave him a clean bill of health, and recently gave Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) CEO and Founder Elon Musk a pass on fraud. Very credible sources.
I’m more inclined to go with the facts.
Through the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the U.S. government tags marijuana as a Schedule I drug. That means it is highly addictive, has no known medical benefits, and cannot be safely prescribed at any dosage.
Right.
Through another agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. government has just approved Epidiolex, a marijuana-based drug that can minimize epileptic seizures.
The FDA went so far as to send a letter to the DEA calling for CBD, one of the active ingredients in a pot, to be removed from any classification under the Controlled Substances Act.
The DEA demurred, tagging Epidiolex as Schedule V, the lowest level, and leaving marijuana as a Schedule I.
Thirty states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational pot.
The national government and the states are on a collision course when it comes to marijuana, and impending crash means one thing.
Opportunity.
Yes, it’s the wild, wild west of investing. That’s what makes it interesting. This isn’t a cryptocurrency, where you build it and hope that clients will show up later. The market exists, and consumers are demanding access. And it will grow.
