US-listed shares of major cannabis producers surged on Thursday after Democratic vice president nominee Kamala Harris said marijuana would be decriminalized at a federal level in the US under a Biden administration.
During Wednesday night's debate with Vice President Mike Pence, Harris said she and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would also expunge the criminal records of people convicted of marijuana-related offenses in the past.
'We will, on the issue of criminal justice reform, get rid of private prisons and cash bail,' Harris said.
She added: 'We will decriminalize marijuana and we will expunge the records of those who have been convicted of marijuana
Shares of major cannabis producers surged on Thursday after Democratic vice president nominee Kamala Harris said marijuana would be decriminalized at a federal level in the US. Cannabis stock tracker MJ ETF rose 5.5 per cent to mark its best session since early June
Meanwhile Tilray Inc jumped 19.2 per cent on the Nasdaq (depicted)
Cannabis stock tracker MJ ETF rose 5.5 per cent to mark its best session since early June, while Tilray Inc jumped 19.2 per cent on the Nasdaq.
US-listed shares of Canopy Growth Corp, Aphria Inc and Aurora Cannabis Inc closed between 10 per cent and 13 per cent higher.
Even though many states have legalized marijuana use, banks and other traditional financial institutions have so far largely refused to work with the industry as cannabis is still a classified substance at the federal level.
'Access to safe banking will transform the industry, freeing up capital markets for investment and reducing the risk of operating a cannabis business,' said Keith Cich, co-founder of cannabis-related products manufacturer Sunderstorm Inc.
Regulatory issues have also restricted cash availability for companies in the nascent sector at a time when they are struggling with a lack of profitability due to high costs.
'From a business perspective, (decriminalization) will level the playing field by allowing companies to expense normal operational costs instead of being taxed on gross profit,' said Sam Armenia, vice president at producer C21 Investments Inc .
Harris, who has supported cannabis decriminalization even before Biden picked her as his running mate, is the lead sponsor of the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019, which sought to end federal prohibition of marijuana
Harris, who has supported cannabis decriminalization even before Biden picked her as his running mate, is the lead sponsor of the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019, which sought to end federal prohibition of marijuana.
Pence and Harris hit the campaign trail in two battleground states on Thursday.
Pence's campaign swing comes as he acts as proxy to President Donald Trump, who is at the White House being treated for COVID-19, a diagnosis that refocused the race on Trump's management of a crisis that has killed more than 211,000 Americans.
Pence on Wednesday defended Trump's record on the pandemic and other issues under sharp attack by Harris, who said Trump's failures had cost American lives.
But the quiet, mostly civil debate was a sharp contrast to last week's combative encounter between Trump and Biden.
With less than four weeks to go until the November election - and more than 5 million votes already cast - the vice presidential debate was unlikely to change many minds in a contest dominated by voter reactions to Trump and Biden.
Biden has led Trump consistently in national polls, but polls show a tighter race in many of the states that will decide the election - including Arizona, which Harris, Pence and Biden visited on Thursday.
Harris joined Biden for an event with Native American leaders and a bus tour to meet with small-business owners and voters in Phoenix and Tempe on the second day of early balloting in the state.
Pence also will travel to Arizona, for a campaign event in Peoria, after beginning the day with an airport hangar rally in Boulder City, Nevada.
Nevada and Arizona are critical swing states in the November 3 election between Biden and Trump.
Biden's campaign has targeted Arizona, which Trump carried by 3.5 percentage points in 2016 against Democrat Hillary Clinton, as a state he could flip in his bid to gather the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Wednesday showed Biden with a narrow 2-percentage-point edge on Trump in Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes.
Trump, 74, lost Nevada to Clinton by 2.4 percentage points in 2016, and is hoping to claim it in November, although polls have shown he has an uphill battle.
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