Cannabis IPO Watch CA and US

[JohnCM]

Acreage Holdings Making Moves To Become Biggest Player In the U.S. Cannabis Market

Acreage Holdings is one of the most prominent cannabis companies in the United States currently. Working to expand an already very diverse portfolio of holdings, Acreage Holding plans to file for an IPO soon according to the PR Newswire and recently added the former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld to their advisory board. After years of patient planning starting in 2012, CEO and founder Kevin Murphy began acquiring cultivation and dispensing licenses in Maine that now include 10 other states.

“The traditional benefits of scale for any business are dramatically amplified in the nascent world of cannabis,” said Kevin Murphy, CEO. “The difference between ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ execution is unusually large and we plan to take advantage of that by creating a template for excellence and delivering it systematically.”

The marijuana legalization movement’s efforts to spread awareness concerning the benefits of legalized cannabis has spurred considerable support among Americans with 64% of people polled by Gallup now being in support of national legalization. Among politicians, democrats are largely in support of legalized cannabis and many republicans are warming to the idea of support such as John Boehner who originally was harshly opposed to ending federal prohibition until he saw its direct medical benefits. He has also now identified the social injustices associated with the federal prohibition of marijuana.

“When you look at the number of people in our state and federal penitentiaries, who are there for possession of small amounts of cannabis, you begin to really scratch your head,” Boehner said. “We have literally filled up our jails with people who are nonviolent and frankly do not belong there.”

“Over the last 10 or 15 years, the American people’s attitudes have changed dramatically,” he said in an interview. “I find myself in that same position.”

Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld will join Boehner on the advisory board of Acreage, which holds 35 licenses for cannabis businesses in the U.S. Boehner, 68, was first elected to the House of Representatives from Southwest Ohio in 1990. He was Speaker from 2011 to 2015, when he resigned amid problems with an increasingly fractious Republican caucus.

“We view this advocacy that we get from these two gentlemen as immensely positive for the industry,” said George Allen, Acreage’s president.

Weld said he’s been in favor of medical marijuana since 1992 and supported the referendum that legalized recreational pot use in his home state in 2016.

“I was a little bit ahead of the field there,” he said in an interview.

“Cannabis could be perceived as an exit drug, not a gateway drug,” he said {in reference to the opioid epidemic).

10th Amendment cases have been popping up throughout the country questioning how involved the federal government should be in the sovereign rights of states to set their own laws for issues such as marijuana legalization. It is another reason for the strong support coming in now from the republican party and another reason why both Boehner and Weld have elected to join the advisory board of Acreage Holdings. Will this roll up of the acquired cannabis state licenses make Acreage Holdings the strongest cannabis brand of the United States?