A CONVERSATIONWITH MATT McCALL
The same happened with cannabis companies over the last decade during certain periods. I realized the majority of the companies out there were junk. That was obviously disappointing to me. But in the years since, things have gone from the Wild West to not- so-wild West. And some of the bad actors have been thrown out of the industry. From the standpoint of stock analysis, you’re seeing a huge demographic shift. The older demographic is dying off. And lot of people I know – in all walks of life, all ages of life, whether they make millions and millions of dollars, or if they are living on minimum wage – smoke marijuana. They may not talk about it, but even that’s starting to change. Honestly, at first, I was just doing a lot of writing on the area and began publishing stuff and throwing it on the Internet. Then about six years ago, I started getting requests to sit on panels and emcee marijuana investing panels. I’ve probably sat on 50 different panels with CEOs of all the major companies. From Canopy Growth in Canada – now a C$5 billion company – to the little guys that are now probably back in their parents’ basement. I was lucky to be in a position to see this entire industry morph from what it was to what it is now. One huge opportunity... is finding the unicorns that are really going to flourish once this becomes a federally legal business.
From a personal standpoint, I was in the hospital with a friend maybe four years ago – emergency room. There was a little girl next to me, maybe 10 years old, crying and crying. And the father was crying. It was so disheartening, it was almost making me cry. I talked to the father for a minute and I said, “If you don’t mind, what’s going on?” He said, “She has terrible seizures and the only thing that helps her is cannabis.” And I saw that firsthand. I thought, “Wow, this girl’s life will be horrible forever unless she has that.” It’s not about people getting high. It’s the fact that cannabis is a true medical breakthrough that this country is so backwards on and still considers more dangerous than cocaine. Q: Yeah, it’s a Class 1 narcotic. McCALL: I’ll be honest with you, it’s ridiculous. I mean, that is just insane to me. Alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana, in my opinion. But back to your question... I saw how things are going to change, how these older people who have one point of view are disappearing. And then you have millennials and Gen Xers like myself who have largely more progressive views on cannabis. Even the Baby Boomers like my parents, who experimented with it 40 years ago and may still indulge, can see the upside potential. There’s just so much money.
The second huge opportunity is to trade them because you can plan ahead.
44 June 2018
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