Of the five states that flipped the switch on marijuana legalization on Election Day, three are populous and full of pot consumers. Therefore, they are extremely fertile ground for the few publicly traded companies that were forward-thinking enough to put down roots there.
Healthcare and cannabis bureau chief Corinne Cardina Jurney and Motley Fool contributor Eric Volkman take a brief look at three stocks poised to turn their early efforts into meaningful businesses in those locations, in this segment from Motley Fool Live recorded on Nov. 18.
Corinne Cardina: Let's touch on a couple of stocks. Let's give the people what they want. What multi-state operators are poised to benefit from these new markets as they open up?
Eric Volkman: Okay. Well, one you had pointed out to me, which I think is pretty interesting one is a little bit smaller, it's Harvest Health and Recreation (HRVSF +0.00%).
Harvest Health has the great advantage of being based in Arizona, that's their home. They already operate 15 dispensaries there, scattered throughout the state, but Arizona is basically... the big population center there is Phoenix, which I think is something like 20% of the entire population of the state. Harvest Health's dispensaries tend to be clustered around there, but they have them in different parts of the state. So assuming that, again, that transition from medical only to medical and recreational, dispensary operating is not that awful and not that painful, these guys, I think are going to get an immediate boost particularly to their revenue. It's exciting and there's an awful lot of possibilities.
But investors do need to track what the progress is with the state ramping up to recreational sales too.
Corinne Cardina: Awesome. Anything in New Jersey?
Eric Volkman: New Jersey is a Johnny-come-lately. I don't know exactly when -- you might have this information on you -- but I don't know exactly when they legalized medical weed. It wasn't that long ago. They were not that generous with the licenses, so there's only really a clutch of dispensaries in the entire state.
We've got Curaleaf (CURLF 0.66%), I think has two dispensaries. Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF +0.43%), I believe has one or two under their Rise brand. It's much different animal than Arizona. You really don't have a lot of boots on the ground there, you don't have a lot of facilities. That's going to take a little bit more time, but I think there's still enormous potential there.
