Public company ownership in the cannabis industry has become a very important topic of late. In most of the country it is difficult, if not impossible, for public companies to have some sort of ownership stake in a cannabis business, or for a cannabis business to be publicly listed at all.
The SEC has allowed a handful of publicly traded cannabis companies, either that do cannabis exclusively, or have some sort of ownership stake in licensed entities. However, it’s been very difficult for publicly traded companies to do that up until recently.
The state of California is allowing limited public company ownership, as does Nevada, and Arizona. However, those markets are still growing. In Colorado, the state legislature is considering allowing public company ownership, and that will open up the capital markets to much more investments in Colorado, which is very needed right now, because of the lack of access to the capital markets for the cannabis industry.
At McAllister Garfield, we do have experience assisting public companies with trying to invest in various ways in the cannabis industry, and we can assist you as well.