Today, I dropped by the International Cannabis Business Conference at the Western Bayshore—and I was greeted by the lovely scent of weed outside the building.
Inside, I ran into former NBA player John Salley, who’s created the cannabis brand Deuces 22 with his daughter Tyla.
Today, however, the main event for me was a presentation by Nic Easley, the founder and CEO of Comprehensive Cannabis Consulting.
He focuses on strategies for people who want to generate a return on their weed investments.
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He likened it to the board game Risk, in which players have to keep an eye on the entire world.
Easley’s preferred method is finding local partners in other countries that enable producers to scale up in a hurry.
And Easley didn’t have much positive to say about Canadian publicly traded giants Aurora Cannabis and Canopy Growth Corporation, which are trying to conquer the planet on their own.
‘It didn’t work for Alexander the Great,’ Easley said. ‘It’s too far from your home base and then everything crumbles. It didn’t work for Rome, either.’
Easley’s comments came on a day when Aurora’s stock plunged 7.75 percent, closing at $7.26.
Canopy shares, on the other hand, were up 1.4 percent to $36.91, but that’s still far below the 52-week high of $76.68.
In his closing comments, Easley predicted that cannabis is here to stay and that it’s going to disrupt many major industries.
He went so far as to say the long-term future is ‘phenomenal’, provided investors choose the right companies.
‘Everyone talks about hemp CBD right now,’ he said. ‘What about paper and concrete and timbers and plastics?’
He forecast that the biggest returns come from investing in early-stage private companies. And intellectual property in the cannabis sphere can yield great returns.
But he also cautioned investors to be careful because a lot of ‘shit’ is doing to be listed on stock exchanges in places like London and Frankfurt. So pick wisely.
Below, you can see some photos from the conference.
