Current State of Cannabis
The bottom line is that we’re operating in the most inefficient capital market scenario that we ever will as an industry.[…] so, that’s the good news, and the bad news, is [that] we’re here. The good news is [that] it’s typically not going to be for much longer.
A message for investing in the Cannabis Industry
I would say if you’re committed to the industry and you have some money that you want, put into the capital markets just deploy it, but stop looking at it because the reality is that it’s this way until something happens legislatively.
We’re not too far off from, hopefully, something at the federal level that could be 3, 5, or 7 years away. We think there’s so much value in not only the public companies but even more so in some of these private companies. So we think the best time to be investing in Cannabis is right now.
The first thing Matt would change if he oversaw California’s Cannabis Market
I would immediately say that we’re going to completely redo our tax structure to where we are incentivized as a state to shut down the illicit market in order to generate more revenue than would come in because we’re only converting about 40% of the market right now in the state.
Matt Hawkins, Founder of EEC Capital
I think Gavin Newsome finally come to the, understanding that he can only generate more revenue by going after the carrot that’s just sitting there waiting to be taken, which is the illicit market. But, you have to shut it down first. […] You have to tamp it down, and you have to reduce the tax burden on the legalized operators in order to convert users.
If you get the costs in a similar range, people are going to go to dispensaries. They’re not going to buy it on the street. Look what happened during the pandemic. We had a surge, and we did have a tamping down of the illicit market. Because of that very reason, we had curbside delivery. The Cannabis industry pioneered social distancing and curbside delivery and pickup.
A lessons learned to pass onto the next generation :
Roll up your sleeves and work hard, whether it’s in the Cannabis [industry] or anything else. This is not a get-rich-quick industry. It takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to build companies in this space.
Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.
