Beer is out of patent. In college I worked at a moderate sized craft brewery that had its own restaurant and also decent regional distribution and they were pouring beer in house for less than $0.25 cents a pint including labor and charging $5+. There are plenty of other competing breweries and other restaurants in the area too. I see industry leaders enjoying similar margins in the marijuana space.

This 280E is counter productive and anti-business. To see it's destructive effect at work, one only has to look at for example Trulieve, a company with a pre-tax income of 25.7M only to see that reduced to 6.6M due to tax. It was worse for GTI who ended up with a negative (pre-tax 3.6M, net income -11.8) ! This discussion has been going on for too long imho. Newcanabisventures offers an article from 2016 outlining how companies could reduce tax (see https://www.newcannabisventures.com/how-cannabis-companies-can-reduce-their-280e-tax-burdens/). I am not a tax expert an I sure CFO's in the industry are lookin at this all the time but it sure looks like the Cannabis industry could do with more lobbying in DC :-) because ultimately this is where this needs to be resolved. I also read there are state by state differences.

In my experience as a customer, all of that tax is paid by the customer.

Maybe you are thinking about this as a consumer and not an investor. Too much supply of a product, or overproduction is always a problem for a business, and an ideal situation for a consumer. The opposite is also true. Canada can have Ice cream shops on every corner, that doesn't mean they will turn a profit in January. I don't know if he is right or wrong, I'm just speaking to his point, and your rationale as to why you feel he is wrong.

Great idea. Will start looking for some voices on these topics.

Thank you, Ed! Grateful to have you as our fearless leader on the Real Vision editorial team. I appreciate the support and feedback from all Real Vision members. I would also love to learn from all of you more about the industries and guests you'd like to hear from on the platform.

This was a very informative interview and I learned a lot about the industry. Haley, congrats on your first interview. I was going to write this comment after scanning the comments but Ed beat me too it!

This was a great interview and well-timed with the Cannabis sector rally today (I'm guessing it was in part due to Harris' decriminalization comments at the debate.) As a growth equities guy I love the coverage of nascent industries.

Excellent. Yes, the sprinkle of content on nascent industries, industries trends, and other topics (demographics, technology, society, etc...) are a great addition I think.

@ Ed === Haley did a very good job setting the stage before the interview... That context of giving a sense on the size of the cannabis market today, anticipated market size in next few years, etc. was extremely helpful, it helped frame everything about Ayr's roll-up strategy, regulatory framework, etc..... The set-up was very good for folks who see these Cannabis stocks in the top 10 moving (up & down) on any given day.... Thank you Haley on investing that time in studying the space and framing it!

Yeah good job Hayley. V interesting space.

I actually see it as a potential blue wave trade. National legalization in the US is the catalyst. I personally believe is happening in the next decade because other countries are going to move and I can't see the US ceding control to other countries in an industry the rightly should be dominated by the US considering we are far and away the largest consumer market. I have been bullish on the space for a while but hadn't yet found an operator that I liked. Jonathan was the first cannabis CEO who was really speaking my language. I'll be watching closely.

next catalyst is federal legalization... that and progress on the banking front

If legalization takes as long as 10 years to play out, a lot of these companies will go bust. This has to happen sooner imho (<2023).

@J W. 10 years is my long end projection. I truly believe it will be sooner and that the payoff could make up for multiple shots at the trade. It is the perfect way to cross the aisle on both sides. It is deregulation but also tax revenue positive and without "raising taxes". With the deficit issues we have that can't be overlooked. It can be sold as creating jobs, but also good for criminal justice reform. There is an anti opioid epidemic angle too. I agree about companies going out of business and not knowing how long it will take, which is why I mentioned not having found an operator that I liked. Money looks to be virtually free for a while and the way Jonathan spoke as an operator was the first time I've gotten excited about a name in the space in a while. I could be wrong about the blue wave or the blue wave meaning anything for cannabis regulations but I think the potential is worth exploring. Growth is scarce out there and this seems like a growth sector I can wrap my head around with reasonable catalysts.

Thanks for the responses Max. Like you, I also recognized in the Cannabis sector a wide range of understandable and investable use cases, from purely recreational to medical and everything in between. It takes a while to play out and I am certainly looking to increase my exposure again so I am looking and learning :-)

Thanks, Richard. We have updated the graphic to be a chart of the AdvisorShare Cannabis ETF that AYR Strategies is included in. As you can see, it is higher than the S&P for all of its existence, and follows the same pattern, roughly, of going up in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, but going down once the markets have calmed down.

Wow, AYRSF is up almost 10% today!!! Now THAT is the power of Real Vision! :-)