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Canadian medical marijuana producers' stocks surged Tuesday after Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party historic victory, which increases hopes that the new prime minister will come through with campaign pledges to “legalize and regulate” cannabis.
Canopy Growth Corp. was up 11 percent to US$2.43, Aphria Inc. rose 5.3 percent to US$1 and Mettrum Health Corp. gained 7.6 percent to US$1.98, according to Bloomberg.
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Medical marijuana companies in Canada had already reported an increase in the value of their shares between 20 and 29 percent last week, as polls began to predict a Liberal Party victory.
“We will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana,” Trudeau said recently. “Canada’s current system of marijuana prohibition does not work.”
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The Liberal Party leader said as it currently stands, the Canadian system does nothing to prevent young people from consuming marijuana, while “too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug.”
The CEO of Canopy Growth Corp. Bruce Linton reminded that Canada was one of the first countries to legalize medical access to marijuana.
“The legal access will be expanded from medical to recreational,” he assured. “And how you receive your recreational will be the discussion. Whether it’s through the mail or perhaps the medical marijuana association of growers creates dispensaries or depots.”
According to Global News, there are currently 26 licensed producers listed on Health Canada’s website with roughly 15,000 people with prescriptions for medicinal marijuana.
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Congrats Canada you now have a prime minister committed to legalizing marijuana. Looks like you're #AlmostLegal pic.twitter.com/noLlRVNyo0
— Shelby Chong (@shelbychong)
October 20, 2015
Many medical marijuana activists have said the current legal system is under used and it is not reaching as many people as it could.
The UBC assistant professor of medicine M.J. Milloy said, “If Mr. Trudeau is in fact serious and if he removes some of those barriers, we could see more people accessing marijuana through the federal system.”
The professor added that, “Marijuana is a very well tolerated drug without the side effects that we see in other drugs like opioids,” which has been used more and more over the years by Canadians, causing a rise in related deaths.
Most widespread marijuana use 1 Iceland 2 US 3 N Zealand 4 Nigeria 5 Canada http://t.co/qdlWMESxgj #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/xY9rRjIqKR
— Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett)
October 14, 2015
Linton said the other advantage of legalizing marijuana is the increase of tax collections that it implies.
The Guardian noted that legalizing marijuana had been a key issue of Trudeau’s electoral campaign, as he promised to legalize cannabis “right away.”
Ahead of Monday's election – which the Liberal Party won with close to 40 percent of the vote and 54 percent or 184 seats in parliament – Trudeau said he couldn't precise at what rate marijuana would be taxed or how access to the drug would be controlled.
Trudeau failed to precise when marijuana would actually be legalized, by saying, “we don't yet know … whether it will happen in the first months, within the first year, or whether it’s going to take a year or two to kick in.”
But he did say that legalization would make it easier to prevent children from consuming pot.
“To ensure that we keep marijuana out of the hands of children, and the profits out of the hands of criminals, we will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana,” he promised.
If Trudeau follows through on his pledge, according to the Guardian Canada would become the second country to fully legalize cultivation, sale and recreational use of cannabis. Uruguay's former President Jose “Pepe” Mujica did so in 2014.
Netherlands, Germany and Spain have very relaxed enforcement on cannabis, but refuses to go ahead with a full legalization. In other countries, such as Australia and Mexico, debate is underway regarding the possibility of legalizing medical marijuana. Many states in the U.S have already legalized recreational use of the weed.
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