3 Pot Stocks to Stay Miles Away From
Tilray (NASDAQ: TLRY), HEXO (NYSE: HEXO), and MediPharm Labs (OTC: MEDIF) are three Canadian companies that have been popular cannabis stocks, but there are good reasons to avoid investing in them today. As with investing in any emerging industry, the ride is likely to be bumpy, but these three are flashing serious warning signs.
Canadian cannabis companies have had a particularly hard time because of regulatory issues with Health Canada. The agency's slowness in reviewing and approving licensing applications has hamstrung companies and that problem has been exacerbated because of the pandemic. All three of these pot stocks have lost considerable value in 2020. Year to date, Tilray is down 51.2%, HEXO is down 37.1% and MediPharm is down 57.1%, while The Cannabis ETF (NYSEMKT: THCX), which includes Tilray and MediPharm, is only down 14.4%
Canada's largest province, Ontario, has roughly four dozen dispensaries in the 20 months since the country became the first G7 nation to legalize recreational marijuana use. Ontario allowed retail sales beginning in April 2019. By contrast, Illinois, which is slightly smaller in population than Ontario and didn't begin allowing recreational sales until this year, already has 60 dispensaries.
Source Fool.com