Taking Stock of Colorado's Marijuana Industry

The green market is headed for the stock market. Although dispensary businesses are having trouble securing financial services — because marijuana is still illegal at the federal level — several pot-related Colorado companies are either currently being publicly traded...or soon will be. How do they manage that? It’s never the cannabis-growing or -selling branch that goes public, but a sister company involved in consulting, tech or hospitality.

This month, for example, the technology sibling of popular family owned dispensary Medicine Man will hit the market as Medicine Man Technology (MMT), a company that focuses on grow technology, planning and consulting — not cannabis sales. While some cannabis-related companies have gone to market via a reverse merger, Medicine Man Tech is the first in the industry to file an S-1 Registration Statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which it did April 15. Look for MMT to begin trading as soon as October, at an estimated $1 a share. It’s a historic move for Medicine Man founders Pete and Andy Williams, as well as Brett Roper, the man behind MMT. But they’ll find they’re in good company.

Here are five more marijuana-related Colorado businesses now trading publicly:

American Cannabis Company Inc. (AMMJ)
American Cannabis Company combines two marijuana-related practices: consulting, and production of items like the Cultivation Cube, a self-sustaining grow-cube invention; Sohum Living Soil; and the Satchel, an easy-to-use version of the kid-safe, compliance-regulated bag for cannabis products.

The MaryJane Group Inc. (MJMJ)
Billing itself as a canna-tourism hospitality business, the MaryJane Group is better known by its trademarked Bud+Breakfast hotel name. Founded in 2014 by Joel Schneider, the company owns and operates three cannabis-friendly inns, two of which are in Colorado.

Two Rivers Water & Farming Company (TURV)
Denver-based Two Rivers combines high-value fruit and vegetable farming and wholesale water distribution into one business.
The company, which started out in the Arkansas River basin, uses a form of rotational farm fallowing that’s unique on the Front Range — and applicable to pot cultivation.

Cannabis Science Inc. (OTC:CBIS)
This Colorado Springs-based company does cannabis research, quantifying the effects of cannabis in its many forms. Its research breaking down the complexities of terpenophenolics has found more than 85 different types of terpenes. According to its website, “Cannabis Science is developing novel cannabis-based approaches to treat the world’s most deadly illnesses.”

MassRoots Inc. (OTCQB:MSRT)
MassRoots, a social network with marijuana-related mobile technology and a half a million users, filed its registration to go public on August 1.“Uplisting to the NASDAQ Capital Market would be a significant milestone not just for MassRoots, but the cannabis industry as a whole,” said MassRoots CEO Isaac Dietrich when that filing was announced. “We believe that uplisting to a national exchange like the NASDAQ would enable MassRoots to attract a broader range of institutional investors, increase share liquidity and help shift the paradigm about investing in the regulated marijuana market.”

Find more marijuana-related stocks here.