After starting the year red hot, pot stocks are set to end 2019 on a sour note. Underwhelming recreational-use sales in Canada, high tax rates in key states like California, various scandals, and an increasingly uncertain outlook about marijuana gaining legal status at the federal level in the United States have diminished the market's appetite for all things cannabis.
Despite that sharp drop in corporate valuations across the space, though, the worst could be yet to come. With the outlook dimming for Canada's legal cannabis market and the United States seemingly years away from ending prohibition at the federal level, most pot companies have been forced to continue selling shares to cover their capital expenditures.
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