On April 20, 1951, Romanian surgeon Dan Gavriliu performed the first ever esophagus replacement on humans and went on to do another 1,000.
On the same day in 1902, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
More recently, April 20 has become known as the ‘420’ day, the rallying cry of those who seek to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational uses.
While the list of countries (and US states) permitting marijuana use has been rapidly growing since a change in international law in 2021 removing it from the UN list of narcotic drugs, leading listed cannabis firms have less to celebrate at the moment.
The largest cannabis sector exchange traded fund (ETF), the 322 million dollars-sized Pure US Cannabis ETF (MSOS), is down 87% over the past two years and 24% in this year alone. This underperforms the benchmark US S&P 500 index by a massive 87% the past two years and 33% this year alone. It also underperforms the British stock index FTSE 100 by 100% over two years and 74% over one year.
Listed cannabis firms, most of which borrowed heavily while fighting for market share, have fallen hard over the last couple of years. There has been a lot of disappointment from the sector at the lack of movement towards Federal decriminalization of cannabis in the US, likely the world’s largest market.
For now, cannabis businesses continue to be hit by costs arising from the complex patchwork of US state and federal laws, while sector growth is restricted.
Table 1: How the leading listed cannabis companies have performed over last two years
| Company | YTD share price changes | 1 year share price change | Two year share price change |
| Green Thumb | -7% | -32% | -73% |
| Curaleaf | -14% | -29% | -81% |
| Trulieve | -6% | -32% | -85% |
| Verano Holdings | -3% | -32% | -84% |
| Terrascend | 4% | -39% | -83% |
The cannabis industry has failed to grow at the rate many predicted and this is illustrated by how small it still is compared to alcohol and tobacco sectors. The largest cannabis stock market cap is 1.7 billion US dollars (Curaleaf), whereas in the alcohol industry, China’s Kweichow Moutai has a market cap of 322 billion US dollars, and in tobacco, US’ Philip Morris has a market cap of 174 billion US dollars.
However, the sector still holds promise with pro-legalization attitudes continuing to grow in the US, almost certainly the biggest global market, and now Germany is set to decriminalize and allow limited recreational use. Germany‘s plan to legalize cannabis for recreational use has received positive feedback from the European Union, according to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. However, German cannabis users will have to rely on home cultivation and cannabis social clubs for their supply rather than licensed shops or pharmacies as initially foreseen, according to a scaled-back cannabis legalization plan.
In Romania, the medicinal use is allowed under strict Government supervision but the recreational use of cannabis is forbidden. However, in late 2018, the Romanian Supreme Court issued a ruling decriminalizing the procuring of products with psychoactive effects, by a final consumer, for personal use. Cannabis is generally cultivated in Romania for fiber, seed/grain and oil, and the main variety generally has a Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of under 0.2%. For cultivation, farmers must obtain prior authorization from the local Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development county office.
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