Weed week: it’s reefer madness as global pot stocks pass $6b in fund raising

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Money continues to pour into cannabis with pot stocks globally raising more than $6 billion so far this year.

Global pot stocks raised $US4.5 billion ($6.3 billion) in the first 40 weeks of the year, according to Viridian Capital Advisors. That’s the year to October 7.

And more cash was raised in that last week than in any other week this year — thank you NASDAQ-listed GW Pharma and its $US345m equity raise.

In the private marijuana space, Cresco closed an Uber-sized fundraising round of $US100m.

In Canada, Aurora Cannabis has diarised December as the date it’ll move south of the border — to the NYSE.

And to top it off Constellation Brands said last week its investment in the biggest public pot stock in the world, Canopy Growth, had already made them $US1.3b.

>>Scroll down for a list of ASX pot stock movers and shakers over the last two weeks

There’s been a bit of chat around the UK considering legalising pot, but last month South Africa sidled in out of nowhere.

In a binding unanimous ruling, their Constitutional Court said using and growing marijuana in private places for private use is legal.

The only other country of the 54 nations that make up Africa to have legal weed is Zimbabwe.

Hoping for a quick economic bounce from cannabis farming they legalised it in April, and the next month but it on hold as they decided that perhaps someone should do a “proper feasibility study” on it before they jump in head first.

Countries that are wavering may be waiting for a WHO report in November and a UN Narcotics Committee decision in March: word is the chances are rising that cannabidiol (CBD) will be removed from reefer-madness category to harmless bit-of-fun-at-a-party classification.

At home investors are increasingly unhappy about the sluggish domestic cannabis market — is it a snail or a race horse waiting to start its run?

Of our 27 pot and pot-related stocks, 12 had cannabis news in the last two weeks.

The top stories were:

Queensland Bauxite (ASX:QBL) is the latest pot stock — indeed, the first in some months — to receive a licence. Technically subsidiary MedCann actually won the licence, but the takeover now is almost a done deal so they’re claiming it.

Affinity (ASX:AEB) and Skin Elements (ASX:SKN) are talking about doing cannabis skin care. Affinity has still not responding to queries about whether they have achieved their first Uruguayan harvest however or whether they’re still selling that company off.

MMJ’s (ASX:MMJ) investee Harvest One has reshuffled its board again, adding four new directors and reiterating that Andreas Gideon, former MMJ and Harvest boss, is no longer with the company in any capacity.

Another of its investees MediPharm had a strong debut on the TSX, and Fire & Flower raised $C1m ahead of its own listing.

MMJ is one of the only ways Aussie investors can gain exposure to the hot North American market without buying direct.

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Zelda (ASX:ALD) started recruiting for its children’s autism trial at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the US. Preliminary results are expected in the first half of 2019 and hope to find CBD compounds that may demonstrate help with treatment.

Lifespot Health (ASX:LSH) finally completes the vaporiser acquisition deal it’s been talking about since last year.

The company has not covered itself in marijuana glory yet. But drug delivery devices are are popular way to get into the cannabis market without having to deal with the regulations, and Lifespot has acquired the remainder of Seng Vital and its smart cannabis vaporise.

And Rhinomed (ASX:RNO), not technically a pot stock, jumped into bed with a US cannabis company to adapt its anti-snoring nasal stents for cannabis drug delivery. We *did* say that getting the drugs into the body is as hot a sector as making the products.

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