Summary

For investors in the space, the changing cannabis consumption landscape opens challenges and opportunities in product creation, marketing, and targeting new consumer groups.

Cannabis is becoming increasingly commoditized, and consumption is moving farther away from the raw flower.

The commoditization of cannabis parallels an important trend that sees cannabis use spreading across age groups and social spheres.

For investors, a wider demographic of cannabis use opens a field of new investment opportunities.

David Trood/DigitalVision via Getty Images Few people have managed to avoid noticing the increasing popularity of cannabis consumption. However, if you walk down the street and catch a whiff of that grassy, pungent smell, you are witnessing a dying breed of cannabis users. While more people consume cannabis, they are increasingly shifting away from the raw flower. For investors in the space, the changing cannabis consumption landscape opens challenges and opportunities in product creation, marketing, and targeting new consumer groups. Cannabis is Becoming a Commodity

While cannabis is famously a weed, its connoisseurs will let you know if you get your strains mixed up. Different strains have varying amounts of THC, the cannabinoid that gets you high, as well as other non-psychoactive cannabinoids and terpenes, several of which have been found to have beneficial effects on inflammation, stress, and more. Cannabis strains all have their own individual look, smell, taste, and experience.

Cannabis is becoming increasingly commoditized, however, and consumption is moving farther away from the raw flower. A growing segment of consumer products are infused with THC and other cannabinoids, thus removing the experience of a flower strain and its characteristic cannabinoid and terpene combinations. Cultivating cannabis is increasingly a large-scale commercial affair, with the size of cannabis "grows" limited in part by their market size because the United States does not allow interstate commerce of the crop.

Many larger operations belong to so-called multi-state operators – companies structured to operate in multiple states. If you have ever invested in a cannabis exchange-traded fund (ETF), these are the companies you bought. Because of their wide reach, their market capitalization is large enough to make it into […]

Opportunities In The Evolving Cannabis Consumption Market