This Secret Document Reveals One Big Bank's Crazy Marijuana Plans

Jacob Redmond

Well-Known Member
It was only a matter of time: Wall Street heavyweight Merrill Lynch, the wealth management division of Bank of America, has apparently already started thinking about its role in the marijuana industry.

A 45-page equity report leaked to Philly Inquirer columnist Chris Goldstein suggests that Merrill Lynch is paying close attention to the budding industry. The company says that it's particularly "bullish on the cannabis testing market."

A prospective investor who received the report last week recently shared it with Goldstein. It included information about various components of cannabis such as THC and CBD, state medical marijuana laws, medical conditions that marijuana has been shown to treat, public polling, and details about "publicly traded companies already operating in the sphere."

"The Merrill Lynch report did not in any way touch upon investing in any company that was directly in the business of growing, processing, or selling marijuana products for medical or personal use under state laws," Goldstein reports. "However, they did note that the cannabis market could be more than $7 billion annually already and could grow exponentially if legalization happened nationwide."

So far, Bank of America (and every other major financial institution in the U.S.) has refused to accept accounts from marijuana businesses in states where pot has been legalized for medical or recreational purposes. But if marijuana is legalized on a federal level, that could quickly change. The industry could grow to be worth $13 billion by 2020, and Wall Street is taking notice.

This Secret Document Reveals One Big Bank's Crazy Marijuana Plans
It was only a matter of time: Wall Street heavyweight Merrill Lynch, the wealth management division of Bank of America, has apparently already started thinking about its role in the marijuana industry.

A 45-page equity report leaked to Philly Inquirer columnist Chris Goldstein suggests that Merrill Lynch is paying close attention to the budding industry. The company says that it's particularly "bullish on the cannabis testing market."

A prospective investor who received the report last week recently shared it with Goldstein. It included information about various components of cannabis such as THC and CBD, state medical marijuana laws, medical conditions that marijuana has been shown to treat, public polling, and details about "publicly traded companies already operating in the sphere."

"The Merrill Lynch report did not in any way touch upon investing in any company that was directly in the business of growing, processing, or selling marijuana products for medical or personal use under state laws," Goldstein reports. "However, they did note that the cannabis market could be more than $7 billion annually already and could grow exponentially if legalization happened nationwide."

So far, Bank of America (and every other major financial institution in the U.S.) has refused to accept accounts from marijuana businesses in states where pot has been legalized for medical or recreational purposes. But if marijuana is legalized on a federal level, that could quickly change. The industry could grow to be worth $13 billion by 2020, and Wall Street is taking notice.

Rather than investing in the federally illegal industry directly, Merrill Lynch says it's looking at "Life Science Tools" associated with cannabis. That includes equipment used to test cannabis potency and quality, and the market for that equipment is expected to grow to between $50 million and $100 million by 2020.

One of the companies cited in the report is GW Pharmaceuticals, which is currently conducting FDA-approved clinical trials on the CBD drug Epidiolex. (CBD is a component of cannabis that is non-psychoactive and has been shown to have a range of health benefits, including pain management and the treatment of epilepsy.)

"GW made headlines this week when they presented the most recent data from the trial to the American Epilepsy Society Annual meeting in Philadelphia," Philly.com reports. "They reported that the drug was well tolerated and showed promise. Further testing will continue in 2016."

Goldstein added:

"In order to tell how much THC is in a given bud or if it contains any adulterants requires some expensive and specialized devices. Gas chromatographs, mass spectrometers and liquid chromatography equipment were exclusively in academic research laboratories or in the pharmaceutical industry. Now, labs exist specifically to only test cannabis plants and products."

"Medical cannabis has high POTential," the report notes (yes, Merrill Lynch made a marijuana joke).

A Bank of America representative declined to comment on the report, but told ATTN: that Merrill Lynch has equity reports on a wide range of markets and that the cannabis testing market report does not necessarily reflect changes in the company's stance on the marijuana industry.

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News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: This Secret Document Reveals One Big Bank's Crazy Marijuana Plans
Author: Kyle Jaeger
Contact: Contact Page
Photo Credit: Joe Amon
Website: ATTN: News
 
Merill Lynch, like pretty much the rest of the Brokerage mega industry, is always interested in 'story stocks.' Investors are often quite eager to invest in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and make subsequent trades for values not justified by the financial fundamentals. Brokers LOVE to sell over-priced IPOs, followed by trades between investors disappointed (or pleased) in the later stock values and resell them to other investors.

Marijuana related businesses are potentially great story stocks. (Think facebook, Apple, and the ever popular gold mines and oil wells.)

Nothing churns stocks and puts trading commissions into a broker's pocket like good story stocks. Even with discount commissions, trading activity (and float) is the key to brokerage success. The actual value of the stocks and profit/losses of the clients are relatively unimportant.

Disclaimer: I worked for a household name brokerage company (in a non-trading position) for 15 years.
 
This photo was taking of me in 2010 for the denver post when i was boycotting federal banks in Denver. When Organ got legal this year they used this same photo of me in the Organ Paper and blogs for just a little over 5years now. My name is Chris Reefer and thank you all for making my stand, voice , and actions a mark in History and I hope ot will inspire many others around rhe world. Google seach me and find my on social media and keep it turning as the world keeps burning. Legalize and maybe we can save what's left of this world. One Love- Chris Reefer

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Thank you 420magazine for keeping people on top of the news. Anytime you ever want a real interview of the trurh threw my eyes and journeys just hmu. -Chris Reefer.

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Great read and input guys, it'll be interesting to see how things play out in the next few years for sure.

My biggest hang up with all this is the fact that so many people have been fighting for Cannabis legalization for so many years now and just because these people finally started listening and paying attention to what we have always said, it's now bringing every "Johnny Come Lately" out of the wood work to try and get their piece of the Cannabis pie when these are the very same SOB's that have been keeping it oppressed for all these years and I really have truck with that. Where were they when we really needed their help? Where have they been in this fight all this time with their deep pockets that could have helped us? They've been a huge part of the problem all these years and just now they want in on it after the "PEOPLE" did all the hard work? I can't get over how all these sharks tunes are changing with all this green blood about to be spilling out into the water. Personally, I'm boycotting these people come hell or high water!!! How dare they stand on the backs of others hard work and try to take advantage of something they never wanted before and only want now because they can smell money from a mile away...Bunch of greedy self righteous fucks! HOW DARE THEY!!!
 
Thank you. From the hard working voice thats standi ng in this photo.

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Thank you for being out there on the front lines! We appreciate all of our brothers and sisters who take their personal time to go work towards change.

:cheer:
 
Thank you. From the hard working voice thats standi ng in this photo.

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:welcome: to the :420:family my friend!

I'm so glad to have you with us brother, I'm so grateful to see so many people here finally getting into the activist side of things and discussing how to make positive changes in this world. It's a beautiful thing, this is OUR TIME!

:bravo::goodjob::high-five::cheer: :thumb:

:Namaste:
 
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