For years, investors have been told the tale that marijuana stocks might be one of the greatest growth stories over the next decade. And based on the sales data we have, that very much looks like the case. Between 2014 and 2018, the duo of Arcview market Research and BDS Analytics found that global legal weed sales more than tripled to $10.9 billion. Estimates on Wall Street opine that worldwide sales could gallop to as high as $200 billion a year by the end of the next decade.
Yet, if you take a closer look at the performance of marijuana stocks since the end of March, it's been abysmal. Inclusive of dividends paid, the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF, the first-ever tradable exchange-traded fund focused on cannabis, has shed 30% since the end of March.
While there are obviously a number of factors that can be blamed for this subpar performance, many of them point back to the two "G's": governance and greed.