Colorado to Get New Infusion of Cannabis Investors
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]hanks to House Bill 18-1011, which will allow publicly traded companies to invest in or hold cannabis licenses, Colorado will soon be home to many more new cannabis investors.
According to MJ Business Daily, this bipartisan bill was sent to Gov. John Hickenlooper for signature. This new bill would also eliminate the 15-person limit for out-of-state owners of cannabis companies.
“This puts Colorado on par with most of the rest of the nation in terms of being able to take investment money,” said Andy Williams, CEO of the Denver-based dispensary Medicine Man, according to MJ Business Daily. “Even though [Colorado is] in the lead in the cannabis industry in business acumen as well as the maturity of our operations, investment money is going elsewhere because of those restrictions. This is going to open up investment in Colorado so our companies can grow and compete with the rest of the nation and take part in the rollout of the industry.”
This new legislation is the result of several years of legal discussions regarding the best way to handle rules and regulations in the Colorado cannabis industry. There will still be plenty of regulations in place to safeguard the industry during the new infusion of investments. Factors like prior criminal convictions would still be taken into account before one could invest, those with more than a five percent ownership in the company would have to be disclosed, at least one investor would have to be a Colorado resident for at least a year, company officers with day-to-day roles would have to be residents and the company would have to have residence in Colorado.
Since some recent plans to bolster the cannabis industry in Colorado have been shot down in the past, such as cannabis delivery and imaginative edibles shapes, this is a welcome opportunity to help boost things in Colorado.
While this is not completely finalized, the passing of this bill would mean that many new investors would be able to get involved in, and help further vitalize, the Colorado cannabis industry.
