Following the Vice Presidential debate, in which Kamala Harris claimed that Joe Biden would reform cannabis laws in the USA, Cannabis stocks began to go up.
Drug enforcement has been a hot topic during the 2020 US election campaign.
Both candidates, President Donald Trump and former vice-president Joe Biden have a somewhat firm stance on cannabis legalisation.
Some argue, having known the candidates’ records, about which we will publish some details in the upcoming weeks, neither would be a good choice for cannabis businesses in the country.
However, when the VP candidates, current VP Mike Pence (R) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D), were debating, it was inevitable to talk about the issue.
Of those two, Ms Harris made the headlines when said cannabis could be on the table should Mr Biden got in the White House.
She said: “We will decriminalise cannabis, and we will expunge the records of those who have been convicted of [possessing] cannabis.”
Experts in and around the cannabis market are now trying to figure out what Sen. Harris’ words mean. This is because, although Sen. Harris indeed is the main sponsor of a cannabis reform bill in Congress, the incumbent President alone is hardly enough to make these changes real.
Talking to Forbes, Nick Kovacevich, CEO of KushCo Holdings, said they were now waiting for more details.
He said: “We don’t know what she means. It’s definitely good that it got mentioned.
“The more it’s talked about, the more momentum there is for change, but just throwing that out there is not going to give anybody the confidence that there is really going to be a change under a Biden-Harris administration.”
Incumbent Vice-President Mike Pence, who is notoriously against legalising cannabis, played down Sen. Harris’ pledge and brought up her past.
He said: “When you were when you were [district attorney] in San Francisco, when you left office, African Americans were 19 times more likely to be prosecuted for minor drug offences than whites and Hispanics.”
Despite VP Pence’s claims, the market liked Sen. Harris’ statement, and cannabis stocks, in general, did rally on Thursday. According to experts, some of the cannabis stocks posted two-digit gains.
It still doesn’t mean that the damage the coronavirus pandemic caused has been made up. Furthermore, others believe the stocks, that got hit so severely, went up only because Joe Biden is thought to be a clear front-runner in the race.
Either way, even if it’s a short-term deal, and the stock market will be slowing down, we could argue the positive signs for cannabis businesses might be there.
