Despite all the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. election, there’s a clear victor already: domestic cannabis companies.

Leaders across the industry cheered after marijuana measures passed in all five states that had them on the ballot Tuesday -- even in deeply red parts of the country. The results buoyed the biggest U.S.-based players in the market.

“Cannabis won, and won big,” said Boris Jordan, chairman of Curaleaf Holdings Inc., one of the largest cannabis companies. “It’s a green landslide.”

The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is slated to vote on cannabis recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Dec. 2.

The vote casts a decision on a series of recommendations for THC and CBD products, including pharmaceutical cannabis products like Marinol, Syndros and Sativex.

If passed, the effects could be significant for consumers and the global industry.

What’s In The Recommendations?

Among its recommendations, the WHO calls for all forms of THC to be removed from the drug convention of 1961, placing it with cannabis in Schedule 1, the least restrictive classification by UN standards. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical cannabis medications would be placed in Schedule 3.

Shares of major Canadian cannabis companies traded in negative territory on Wednesday amid election results showing an uncertain pathway for the U.S. to legalize cannabis federally despite a "green wave" of state-led ballot initiatives that legalized marijuana in five U.S. states. 

While votes are still being counted the day after the U.S. election, voters in Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, Mississippi and Montana all gave the green light to legalizing cannabis for either medical or recreational purposes. 

The nation may not know who is president on election day, but the people have spoken when it comes to cannabis legislation. Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota have all legalized marijuana for adults 21 and older, as voters in each state approved their respective ballot initiatives at the ballot box. The Garden State has gone green as the closely watched state of New Jersey approved adult-use cannabis.

Will These Marijuana Stocks Benefit From Election Day?

There seems to be no stopping drug seizures, the majority being cannabis, at border crossings in New York state, with the amount of confiscated weed increasing more than 1,100 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures from its annual report show that 3,456 pounds (1,568 kg) of cannabis was seized at the Buffalo Field Office in fiscal year 2019, a mere portion of the 41,688 pounds (18,909 kg) confiscated in fiscal 2020. The field office covers 16 ports of entry in the state of New York.

I’m often asked to comment on whether or not cannabis will ever truly attain the status of a commodity. While the answer has generally been yes, we have a ways to go. 

First of all, it’s necessary to understand what exactly a commodity is. For our purposes, and in the context of cannabis, we’re talking about a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold. Modern examples of commodities include copper and coffee.

A commodity is a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be bought and sold.

The pandemic has made more people open to experimenting with alternate health and wellness remedies.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) will receive $4.2 million in federal, provincial and industry funding to study enhanced cannabis cultivars, with a particular focus on disease resistance.

In partnership with Aurora Cannabis, the project, titled Fast-Tracking Breeding of Powdery Mildew-Resistant Cannabis, is led by UBC researchers Loren Rieseberg and Marco Todesco.