Weed Week: US pot legalisation picks up steam, and the Big Apple could be next

Pot legalisation is creeping across the US state by state, and a major market could be about to join their ranks.

Reports out of New York indicate that lawmakers in the Empire State are close to signing a new bill legalising recreational cannabis use.

There are currently 34 US states that allow the use of medicinal cannabis products, while 15 have legalised recreational use.

If New York made it 16 that would add a major new east coast market for the sale of THC cannabis products.

The first state to legalise marijuana was Colorado back in 2012, and since then many attempts have been made in New York without success.

State legislators have reportedly hammered out most of the details, with a couple of tie-ups related to how people found to be driving under the influence of marijuana should be prosecuted.

The office of under-fire New York governor Andrew Cuomo has projected that legal marijuana sales would contribute an additional $US350m worth of tax revenue to the state.

Legalisation in New York would herald another one of the “winds of change” taking place in US markets, where cannabis investor Mark Bernberg highlighted a number of listed investment opportunities in an interview with Stockhead earlier this month.

On the local front, ASX pot stocks got back on the horse last week as 21 of the 35 companies on Stockhead’s watchlist posted a gain.

That marks a sharp turnaround to the last edition of Weed Week when the sector cooled off at the end of February.

Of those 21, 10 companies posted double digit gains last week as more companies continue to look offshore to build out their medicinal cannabis sales strategies.

They included weekly leader BOD Australia (ASX:BDA), which announced a 62 per cent increase on half-year revenues to $3.3m, underpinned by $1.4m of sales to Hong Kong listed Health and Happiness Group (parent company of Swisse).

The latest weekly, monthly and annual price performance for ASX-listed cannabis stocks:

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Code	Name	Price ($)	1W % Ret	1M % Ret	1Y % Ret	Market Cap
BDA	BOD Australia	0.535	30.5%	12.6%	311.5%	$50.3M
MXC	MGC Pharmaceuticals	0.073	30.4%	-6.4%	265.0%	$163.2M
WOA	Wide Open Agriculture	0.78	20.9%	2.6%	680.0%	$74.1M
IHL	Incannex Healthcare	0.215	19.4%	-17.3%	481.1%	$227.2M
AGH	Althea Group	0.54	18.7%	0.9%	237.5%	$141.7M
EOF	Ecofibre Limited	1.43	12.6%	-10.6%	-1.7%	$208.7M
RNO	Rhinomed Ltd	0.135	12.5%	8.0%	22.7%	$31.7M
DTZ	Dotz Nano Ltd	0.27	12.5%	12.5%	487.0%	$105.4M
LGP	Little Green Pharma	0.7	12.0%	0.0%	169.2%	$93.9M
RGI	Roto-Gro Intl Ltd	0.054	10.2%	-6.9%	-20.6%	$14.4M
IDT	IDT Australia Ltd	0.19	8.6%	-9.5%	90.0%	$46.8M
ZLD	Zelira Therapeutics	0.068	7.9%	-15.0%	112.5%	$78.6M
EVE	EVE Investments Ltd	0.007	7.7%	-12.5%	75.0%	$25.0M
BOT	Botanix Pharma Ltd	0.12	6.8%	-13.0%	67.9%	$111.0M
PAL	Palla Pharma Ltd	0.5	6.4%	-5.3%	-16.5%	$75.2M
ROO	Roots Sustainable	0.02	5.3%	-9.1%	17.6%	$10.3M
EXL	Elixinol Global	0.205	5.1%	-12.8%	-16.7%	$66.1M
AC8	Auscann Grp Hlgs Ltd	0.16	5.0%	-14.9%	-4.5%	$49.1M
NTI	Neurotech Intl	0.067	4.7%	9.8%	1575.0%	$37.8M
SUD	Suda Pharmaceuticals	0.043	2.4%	-10.4%	15.4%	$16.5M
APH	AP Hemp Ltd	0.48	2.1%	-3.0%	500.0%	$35.8M
LSH	Lifespot Health Ltd	0.12	0.0%	0.0%	312.1%	$20.2M
MDC	Medlab Clinical Ltd	0.295	0.0%	-13.2%	47.5%	$82.5M
ESE	Esense-Lab Ltd	0.018	0.0%	0.0%	260.0%	$9.2M
CP1	Cannpal Animal	0.17	0.0%	-8.1%	78.9%	$15.8M
MMJ	MMJ Group Hlds Ltd	0.115	0.0%	-17.9%	45.6%	$27.6M
CAU	Cronos Australia	0.14	0.0%	-17.6%	55.6%	$6.8M
CAN	Cann Group Ltd	0.585	-0.8%	-24.5%	-6.4%	$165.3M
EPN	Epsilon Healthcare	0.225	-2.2%	-11.8%	7.1%	$42.9M
MRG	Murray River Grp	0.29	-3.3%	-21.6%	-51.7%	$12.8M
SCU	Stemcell United Ltd	0.027	-3.6%	0.0%	170.0%	$22.7M
CPH	Creso Pharma Ltd	0.19	-5.0%	-15.6%	233.3%	$181.2M
CGB	Cann Global Limited	0.0075	-6.3%	-25.0%	-6.3%	$41.1M
LV1	Live Verdure Ltd	0.235	-7.8%	23.7%	0.0%	$9.6M
ECS	ECS Botanics	0.053	-8.6%	-20.9%	140.9%	$24.6M