Marijuana stocks Tilray (TLRY), Cronos Group (CGC) and Canopy Growth (CGC) slid after-hours on a report that a U.S. border official said that Canadian industry employees and marijuana investors broadly could be blocked from coming to the U.S.
The news was reported by Politico. Tilray lost 2%. Cronos fell 3.2%. Canopy fell 2.9%.
“If you work for the industry, that is grounds for inadmissibility,” the official, Todd Owen, executive assistant commissioner for the Office of Field Operations, told Politico.
Same goes for if you invest in it. “We don’t recognize that as a legal business,” he said, adding that investors from nations like Israel have been blocked from U.S. entry.
Recreational legalization in Canada, which is only weeks away, could complicate cross-border travel between the two countries, Politico noted. The U.S. still federally forbids marijuana even as more states have legalized it over the past several years.
Owen told Politico the U.S. wouldn’t be asking everyone crossing the border whether they’ve used marijuana, but said authorities might inquire further “if other questions lead there.” Lying about past drug use, he told Politico, represents “fraud and misrepresentation, which carries a lifetime ban.”
Tilray Brings More Cannabis To Germany
Earlier Thursday, Tilray said it had received the OK to export buds into Germany for patients in that nation. The company made its cannabis extract products available in Germany last year. Germany legalized medical marijuana last year.
On Tuesday, Tilray said that its CBD oil “was successfully imported” into the U.K. for a patient. On Wednesday, short-seller Citron Research said surging valuations in marijuana stocks were “more ridiculous than Bitcoin” and had led to a “ridiculous valuation discrepancy” for Tilray. Earlier this month, Northland Capital downgraded Tilray, saying that its valuation was “complex” while still praising the company’s strengths.
Cronos Group’s New Recreational Marijuana
With recreational legalization in Canada a little more than a month away, Cronos on Thursday also announced the launch of what it is calling Spinach.
“Cronos Group’s first priority is responsible distribution so we made sure to select a brand name that we felt would not appeal to kids,” Mike Gorenstein, Cronos’ CEO, said in a statement. “Spinach has been carefully curated to deliver on our promise to provide high-quality products to fun-loving mature adults who are sick of hearing about kale.”
That’s just a bit of a departure from the normal corporate language usually found in the press releases from Cronos and its Canadian rivals.
Spinach’s website — loaded with close-up photos of bulk vegetables and rural whimsy — says its expectations are “high.” The product is “super frosty like your windshield in February.” But it also offers a window into how the cannabis industry might try to market recreational products.
Increasingly, marijuana companies are marketing recreational cannabis products around moods and occasions throughout the day. One Spinach product, called “Sensi-Star,” is good for winding down, the site says. “Diesel” is good for, well, feeling good. “Dancehall” is energizing.
Spinach is the company’s second weed brand for the recreational market. The other, called Cove, is marketed as a premium brand. Cove’s website, whose mood is all alpine morning fog, advertises strains with names like Rise, Reflect, Restore and Relax.
“Make each experience a discovery,” the Cove website says. “Which one are you?”
Credit:Â www.investors.com
