Disruptors Wanted
With retail and wholesale cannabis prices still in freefall and no federal legalization in sight, capital-raising opportunities have dried up. Truly disruptive businesses will win in the short term as the scarce investor money still earmarked for cannabis fuels opportunistic acquisitions and ancillary business models that reduce or remove risk for operators. Wholesale prices in Colorado fell to $709 per pound this year, hitting the lowest point since the state’s revenue department began reporting prices in 2014. According to the Portland Press Herald , the average cost of flower in Maine’s adult-use market has dropped 41 percent in the past two years. It’s happening across the country, and many investors are well aware. In 2021, when the S&P 500 gained more than 25 percent, the New Frontier Data Cannabis Universe Composite (composed of public-equity prices of listed cannabis companies), dropped more than 5 percent. The largest publicly listed multistate operators collectively rai...