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A budtender pours marijuana from a jar at Perennial Holistic Wellness Center medical marijuana dispensary, which opened in 2006, on July 25, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously voted to ban storefront medical marijuana dispensaries and to order them to close or face legal action. The council also voted to instruct staff to draw up a separate ordinance for consideration in about three months that might allow dispensaries that existed before a 2007 moratorium on new dispensaries to continue to operate. It is estimated that Los Angeles has about one thousand such facilities. The ban does not prevent patients or cooperatives of two or three people to grow their own in small amounts. Californians voted to legalize medical cannabis use in 1996, clashing with federal drug laws. The state Supreme Court is expected to consider ruling on whether cities can regulate and ban dispensaries.
- Aurora Cannabis on Tuesday is set make its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Shares will trade under the ticker "ACB."
- Weed stocks are getting slammed across the board, down between 7% and 14%.
- Watch Aurora Cannabis, Tilray, Canopy Growth, and Cronos,
Weed stocks were under pressure Tuesday morning as one of the largest cannabis producers, Aurora Cannabis, gets set to go public on the New York Stock Exhange.
Tilray, Canopy Growth, and Cronos, who already trade on US markets, were lower between 7% and 14% ahead of the opening bell. Before Tuesday, Aurora was trading solely on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Aurora, which grows cannabis for both the adult-use and medicinal market, has seen its market capitalization double since August - to just more that $10 billion - as both corporate giants and investors have gotten in on the "green rush" into marijuana.
That includes the recent sell-off that has taken hold ever since last week Wednesday, the day before marijuana was legalized in Canada. Aurora shares have plunged about 35% since putting in their record high that morning.
But investors say the drug's legalization in Canada is just the beginning. "We believe that the legalization in Canada offers a road map to invest in the companies that will form the basis of the legal cannabis industry in the coming years," said Jon Trauben, a managing partner at the cannabis-focused Altitude Investment Management.
Aurora shares will trade under the ticker "ACB."
Jeremy Berke contributed to this report.