Subsequent to the passage of the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, signed into law December 21st, there has been a significant amount of speculation as to the rise of the market for CBD oils, edibles, supplements and derivatives. Migrating across the country are calls to create a system – or infrastructure – if you will, to enable this budding (pun intended) industry to grow and thrive. This bill clarified two gaps in prior legislation related to industrial hemp, namely removing hemp from the definition of marijuana and and creates an exception to the THC in hemp – essentially declassifying it as a Schedule I narcotic, as long as it has no more than 0.3 percent. Then the state has to enact processes – subject to USDA approval – before being legal. The most onerous of which is mandatory testing of the THC threshold.
In a role reversal of sorts, the new reality is that CBD is legal at a federal level with a hodge-podge of regulations at the state level with a degree of federal oversight. For the time being, one can assume differing laws depending on the state. This is also subject to change regularly. For purposes of this discussion, we’ll assume Texas is moderate – neither at the bleeding edge nor trailing the pack – as HB1325 was signed into law last month and retailers are already making an appearance – pending registration. Many – including myself – are attempting to identify ways to profit from these endeavors with no clear answers. DivHut (via a guest post) tackled this question and laid out a great foundation before withering away at the end. I do have to concur there may well be room to run in this space, the key being in what way – which we’ll explore a little further.
Retail is the obvious starting point with CVS and Walgreen are dipping their toes in the water while Amazon is marketing CBD-less hemp oil. The bad news, if any, is that any sales made by these giants would be negligible to earnings. This isn’t to ignore the mom-and-pop shops or franchise operations appearing, only that as a passive investor the options currently limited.
Manufacturing is the second area for research but winds up being the most convoluted depending on your interest, e.g., topical, edible, oil, prescription drug, THC or CBD, et.al. My approach is to categorize into two segments: Consumer and Cultivation. The consumer side being a product supplier to a retailer or consumer direct. Cultivation is a little trickier in that the Texas bill legalizes hemp farming and the sale and possession of hemp-derived CBD oil containing less than .3% of THC. Meanwhile growing hemp is not yet legal until the USDA provides guidelines and approves state applications. This could be considered a quagmire of sorts, but of a temporary nature.
Extraction and Testing is the final area to watch as this is where the heavy investment will take place. One piece of the Texas Law is, ” the laboratory must be accredited under ISO/IEC 17025 or other comparable standard. License holders may not use their own laboratories for state testing unless the license holder has no ownership in the laboratory or less than a ten (10) percent ownership interest if the laboratory is a publicly traded company.” Consider that most – if not all – of the law enforcement labs require upgrades to differentiate between now legal and still illegal products. Xabis, an independent lab, has forged a deal with Westleaf that includes equity based compensation.
So who currently has my eye?
- Retail – Elixinol Global (ELLXF). Assuming this Aussie company can navigate through the FDA regs unscathed.
- Manufacturing – Canopy Growth (CGC) – pursuing a license to process hemp in New York state
- Testing – Eurofins Scientific (ERFSF)
All of which are highly speculative – so tread lightly and do your due diligence. Is this a space you too are looking at (additional suggestions are always welcome)!
Update 4 Aug 2019: On Aug 1 I initiated a position in Innovative Industrial Properties Inc. (IIPR), a REIT in the medical space.
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