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Two indices tracking the performance of cannabis businesses on North America’s largest stock exchanges have been discontinued amid waning investor interest in marijuana stocks and billions in losses suffered by the companies.

The S&P/TSX Canada Cannabis Index was decommissioned with little fanfare earlier this year after being launched on Jan. 20, 2020, a spokesperson for S&P Dow Jones Indices confirmed in an email to MJBizDaily International Editor Matt Lamers.

A second index, the S&P/MX International Cannabis Index, was decommissioned in November 2021.

The S&P/TSX Canada Cannabis Index measured the performance of a basket of cannabis companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange, including Canopy Growth Corp., Cronos Group, Organigram Holdings and Village Farms International.

No official reason was given by Standard & Poor’s.

But a methodology document on S&P equity indices states that an index may be discontinued if it sees declining investor use or interest - the same issue that contributed to the shuttering this month of a cannabis-focused, exchange-traded fund linked to San Francisco-based Poseidon Investment Management.

The S&P/TSX Cannabis Index had lost more than 92% of its value from its peak in February 2021.