Business

We’ve been fortunate to have had a front-row seat to witness the emergence of the legal cannabis industry in the media over the past several years. Back in 2015, we started to get approached by emerging cannabis brands that were looking to destigmatize the perception around their products, and more importantly, bring a greater level of objective reporting around the industry as a whole. At the time, most of these brands were well-reputed in niche cannabis industry circles, but were looking to take the next step and achieve mainstream awareness.

Marijuana legalization in New York seemed impossible this year. Recently, Governor Cuomo said the pandemic is the state’s main priority right now. He also said that a decision like marijuana legalization shouldn’t be made quickly. As a result, delaying marijuana legalization was a wise decision. However, lawmakers have been looking at other options. They want to discuss and make the legalization decision remotely through online discussions.

Cannabis businesses are in a unique position to showcase what a socially responsible industry could look like.

The traditional models for business entities fall under either for-profit companies focused on profit, or nonprofit organizations focused on social impact. But many emerging leaders are leaning toward a third option: social entrepreneurship. As a tool for effective social change, self-sustaining revenue-generating businesses built to create change can be more impactful than nonprofits, which rely heavily on hard-to-come-by donations.

A trade deal signed earlier this year has brought much needed investment from an unlikely ally.

The coronavirus crisis could be igniting a revolution of sorts in the legal cannabis industry.

Thirty-three states across the U.S. allow for some form of sale and consumption of marijuana. And of those, more than 20 states have designated the cannabis industry as essential during the coronavirus outbreak.

While advocates are applauding many of the interim marijuana laws, they also say those laws exposes dangerous disparities among states.

The United States has had a long, complex relationship with cannabis legalization. While it's still illegal at a federal level, individual states have been decriminalizing and legalizing cannabis since the 1970s (in the case of Alaska), with increasing momentum driven in recent decades by advocates for medical marijuana.

The sector was already shaky before COVID-19, but companies must now have the right mix of cash, pot and sales channels to make it to the other side

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, cannabis stocks had plummeted from fattened valuations as they failed to find promised profit and seemed at risk of bankruptcy. The global pandemic has made the situation even worse, and investors now are looking for companies that will simply survive.

The coronavirus outbreak has put weed legalization — a movement that has made considerable strides in recent years with 11 states now allowing recreational marijuana and 33 permitting medical cannabis —  on the back burner in states around the country, as politicians focus their efforts on combating the epidemic and the future of ballot referendums on the issue is thrown in the balance due to social distancing guidelines.

U.S. cannabis CEOs say the chances for federal marijuana legalization will dramatically increase in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, after several states declared dispensaries essential businesses, allowing them to remain open during stay-at-home orders aimed at halting the spread of the virus. 

CNBC spoke with the leaders of U.S. based cannabis producers Cresco Labs, Curaleaf and Green Thumb Industries as well as cannabis investor Matt Hawkins about the state of the industry ahead of April 20, also known as “4/20,” the unofficial holiday for recreational cannabis users.