Turns out times have really changed in 2017 — you can now basically buy weed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, albeit not literally.One of Canada’s biggest marijuana producers, Canopy Growth Corporation, has gone from being listed as CGC to WEED on the Toronto Stock Exchange. That’s in a way, the financial equivalent of being a cannabis producer and beating out the competition to lock down www.weed.com as your company’s domain name.“We’re thrilled to be marketing WEED on Bay Street,” Canopy Growth’s Chief Executive Officer Bruce Linton said in a statement. “Patients, investors and Canadians as a whole are more accepting of the cannabis sector today than ever before,” Linton added.Canopy Growth has been on a pretty spectacular growth trajectory recently. Just two days ago, Canopy completed the acquisition of Mettrum Health Corp., a licensed producer of medical marijuana and cannabis products. Metrrum’s website pledges to direct its consumers to physicians who prescribe medical marijuana, in case you’re in a situation where your doctor refuses to write you a prescription for weed.The Mettrum purchase makes Canopy the biggest legal cannabis business in the world.Last November, Canopy’s stock shot up 20 percent in the span of a few hours, prompting the Toronto Stock Exchange to halt trading on the stock. Since Canopy was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in July 2016 — meaning that people like you and me could start purchasing shares of the company — it has been on a tear, surging almost 217 percent in under eight months.Based on its current share price (as of Thursday, February 2nd, 2pm ET) Canopy is worth approximately $1.2 billion.Canadians are increasingly interested in the weed investing space as Justin Trudeau’s government continues to inch towards legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. The value of marijuana stocks in Canada has ballooned since the release of the Trudeau’s Marijuana Task Force Report, which skewed strongly towards the legalization of recreational weed consumption for Canadians as young 18.Marijuana stock analyst Khurram Malik at Jacob Securities believes that the strength of the weed sector in Canada will depend on just how much Trudeau’s government will let market forces work to produce competitive recreational weed prices.According to a recent note by Canaccord Genuity, there could be 3.8 million recreational weed users in Canada if legalization takes place later this year.Follow Vanmala on Twitter
Advertisement