What’s wrong
US pot stocks failed to catch fire on Tuesday.
Curaryef Holdings (Kalf -7.62%) Leading the decline by dropping more than 7% of the day’s stock price, green thumb industries (GTBIF -3.65%) It fell nearly 4%. Some Canadian comrades also caught this cold. aurora cannabis (ACB -1.65%)for example, slips by 1%.
So what
The dominant Republican Party struggled to elect a speaker from their party on Tuesday, but barring some odd developments, they will eventually sort this out to take control of the House of Representatives.Unfortunately for the marijuana industry. Republican lawmakers are the most resistant to drug law reform.
This means that drug decriminalization (read: legalization) at the federal level will likely be under water during this Congress. The same can be assumed for the SAFE Banking Act. This is essentially a legalization-adjacent measure that allows marijuana businesses to access the basic financial services that all businesses need to function effectively.
Legalization can only be done at the federal level by removing weed’s status as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act. Individual states can and do license recreational consumption and sale, but each change in these laws leaves a confusing patchwork of national legality.
so
No doubt Curaleaf and Green Thumb are very busy throwing their products at people in these places. But the big prize is the decriminalization of the federal government, and with the arrival of crowds in the House, it’s clear that won’t happen anytime soon.
Eric Volkman has no positions in any of the mentioned stocks. The Motley Fool holds positions in and recommends Green Thumb Industries. The Motley Fool’s U.S. headquarters has a disclosure policy.
