- Since then, medical cannabis has become legal in 38 US states, comprising 76% of the country.
- In Europe, over half of EU member states have legalised medical cannabis, and countries such as Germany are considering recreational legalisation this year.
- CBDX provides pure-play exposure to the legal medical cannabis industry.
April 2023, London
HANetf, Europe’s first and only independent white-label ETF and ETC platform, and leading provider of digital asset ETPs, is celebrating the 3rd World Cannabis Day since the launch of The Medical Cannabis and Wellness UCITS ETF (CBDX).
CBDX launched on 9th January 2020, and recently celebrated its 3rd anniversary. It is now celebrating the 3rd World Cannabis Day that has occurred since its inception.
Since the start of 2020, a lot has changed in the medical cannabis sector. In the US—Virginia, New York, New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont all legalised cannabis, while Alabama, Connecticut, Mississippi, and Kentucky legalised medical cannabis
Medical cannabis is now legal in 38 US states (and 21 recreationally), comprising 76% of the country. In November 2022, Pew Research Center reported that 88% of US adults are on board with cannabis legalisation for either medical or recreational use.
The rest of the world has started to follow suit—in Australia, cannabis was legalised for growth and personal use in Canberra and the surrounding capital territory in 2020, having already legalised medical cannabis back in 2016.
Over half of the EU member states have legalised medical cannabis, and in Malta it is legal for recreational use. Other EU countries have legalised cannabis in certain venues (e.g. Dutch coffeeshops) or have imposed a possession limit in grams. Recent news suggests that Germany is pushing for full legalisation of cannabis for recreational use by the end of this year, and Switzerland plans to trial legalisation in Zurich this summer.
In the UK meanwhile, the first Phase II trials will soon commence, studying the effect of cannabidiol (CBD) on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and endometriosis. If successful, these trials could pave the way for CBD to be available via the National Health Service (NHS).
These developments, and those yet to come, suggest that the medical cannabis wave is going strong, and shows no signs of faltering. Revenue in the global cannabis market is expected to reach USD$51.28bn by the end of this year, and USD$92.10bn by 2027.
CBDX provides pure-play exposure to the rapidly expanding legal medical cannabis industry that is set for further growth as more countries legalise cannabis for medical use.
The fund tracks a rules-based Medical Cannabis and Wellness Equity Index from Solactive, consisting of publicly listed companies conducting legal business activities across nine thematic sub-sectors in the medical cannabis, hemp and CBD industries.
Hector McNeil, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of HANetf, comments: “The world is clearly moving towards greater liberalisation for medical cannabis, with the plant’s medicinal properties now widely recognised. As with many investment themes based around legalisation, sentiment ebbs and flows on the back of news coming out of major countries – in this case, the United States. But the long-term trend, we believe, is clearly pointing towards greater lifting of legal restrictions and a growing market.”
“CBDX is one of HANetf’s many innovative themes. Alongside CBDX, HANetf has ETFs providing access to the space economy, cloud computing, uranium mining, physical carbon, digital infrastructure, solar energy, the metaverse and more.”
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