Cannabis: ‘The U.S. is a $100 billion opportunity,’ Tilray CEO says
Yahoo Finance Video
Cannabis: ‘The U.S. is a $100 billion opportunity,’ Tilray CEO says
Thu, August 4, 2022 at 11:06 AM
In this article:
Tilray CEO Irwin Simon joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss earnings, cannabis legalization, and the outlook for the market for marijuana.
Video Transcript
- Shares of Tilray have risen about 20% since the company reported its earnings last week, down a little bit today. Investors are eyeing the cannabis-maker's plans to turn to free cash flow positive in fiscal 2023. Meantime, public support for cannabis legalization in the US continues, but Rhode Island remains the only state to legalize recreational marijuana thus far this year. Of course, it's on the federal table as well.
Joining us to discuss all of this, a lot of it to discuss is Tilray CEO, Irwin Simon. Irwin, it's good to see you. I was just looking back today and I found an interview that I did with you from 2012 when you were at Hain Celestial. So 10 years now and running that we've been talking about consumer products of one kind or another. I want to start with legalization.
- I looked a little younger then, right Julie?
- We both did. Let's dig into the business in a second. I just want to start with the federal legalization question because I know you guys don't sell marijuana itself in the United States, sell cannabis itself in the United States. What do you-- I'm sure you're watching the situation in Washington closely, where are you sort of gaming out the prospects at this point?
- So, Julie, let's step back to basically what the consolidation of Aphria and the acquisitions of multiple brands. And, as you said, you look back at Hain at 2012 and the brands that I acquired there and what we built into the largest natural organic food and personal care and protein company, if you step back and look what we're trying to build here is Tilray Brands, number one. With a focus on cannabis, with a focus on adult-use, medical, spirits, beer, and wellness and food.
To step back and look at the biggest opportunity, the US is $100 billion opportunity in cannabis. If you look at cannabis today in the US, 93% of Americans want medical cannabis legalized and about 63%, 65% want adult-use.
