#MSOGang
So this just happened. And if ur too lazy to click…
Cannabis CEOs, Targeted by Reddit, Push Back in Tweet Storm
By Tiffany Kary
February 12, 2021, 2:54 PM EST
#MSOgang hashtag is trending with U.S. multistate operators
Movement tries to distinguish U.S. from Canadian stocks
A Reddit-fueled mania has sent cannabis soaring and crashing back down in recent days. Leaders of some of the marijuana industry’s biggest companies are now joining a Twitter movement that’s pushing back -- with hashtags.
The tag #MSOgang has trended on the social-media platform as supporters seek to differentiate U.S. multistate operators -- or MSOs -- from their peers in Canada. The Reddit phenomenon has largely lumped all the companies together, obscuring what some in the industry say are critical differences.
The movement behind the hashtag has also pitted individual investors against big ones, bringing some tension with conservative institutional investors who haven’t gotten into U.S. cannabis stocks because of ongoing regulatory uncertainty.
Canadian companies have traded in tandem with U.S. ones -- in part because they’re a legal way for institutional investors to take part in U.S. cannabis, making them something of a proxy amid regulatory uncertainty. But many investors say that this year, as the prospects for more U.S. legalization of recreational cannabis pick up, there’s no longer an equivalence between stocks in the two countries. That’s because Canadian companies don’t have a clear path to sell their products to the U.S.’s much larger market, even if the legalization effort gains momentum.
The hashtag has shown up on the profile pages in recent days of the heads of many top cannabis companies, including Cresco Labs Inc.’s Charles Bachtell, Curaleaf Holdings Inc.’s Boris Jordan, Green Thumb Industries Inc.’s Ben Kovler and Trulieve Cannabis Corp.’s Kim Rivers. Jordan declined to comment through a spokeswoman and the other executives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on their reasons for using the hashtag.
The movement highlights a tension between small and large investors, said Todd Harrison, the chief investment officer of CB1 Capital, a fund with $50 million invested in U.S. cannabis companies. As big players are mostly stayed on the sidelines of cannabis companies, the Reddit-driven volatility of late is predominantly a result of small investors flooding in.
With the hashtag, supporters are trying to show how the industry is maturing, in part through the differences in U.S. and Canadian companies, he said in a phone interview. “The whole mission is to educate others on the opportunity in cannabis, especially given the Reddit surge.”
Harrison said he was one of the earlier people to use the hashtag and has been watching the movement build. Some view him as one of its leaders, he said, citing a recent post that surprised him: a shot of his face photoshopped over that of Marlon Brando in the Godfather, labeled #Toddfather. (me here now: please look away)
The MSOgang term has been around since at least August, but it has been trending in recent days. For some, it has been used in response to a negative industry outlook from television commentator Jim Cramer.
Jim and I have a love-hate relationship insofar as he loves to hate me.
And I get it, I do. I would hate me too.
But this isn’t about us. This is about representing the best interests of the investors I know he cares so much about. Because JJC is a good man who hustles to do the right thing. I know this about Jim. He’s done right by me more times than I can count.
So while sometimes I may slip, as everyone does…
Every conversation has a context and history. Sometimes a deep history.
But this isn’t about Jim and I any more than it’s about us vs. them.
And by them, I mean the mainstream media that continues to equate “cannabis” with Canadian cannabis companies like $ACB $CRON $CGC $APHA and the like.
Because that’s backwards-thinking / recency bias / painful memories. I get it. I rode this thing down, with the global cannabis index losing 92% from January 2018 till March of last year, before climbing out of that hole to stand on this hill.
(full disclosure: $CGC $APHA $CRON and perhaps most of all, $VFF, have a path to success, but it is fraught with conditions and circumstance vs. the U.S purebreds that are poised to gallop. I’ve written about the generational opps in the U.S here and here (and here and here and here. my f*cking fingers are about to fall off).
TBH IDK if the next 10% in U.S canna is up or down. Maybe the next 20%. And that’s with the broader tape firm. I mean, who can know? I sure as shit don’t. But given the run till now, we must all understand that every day is a process of price disovery.
But I have a fairly strong sense that the next 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 10,000% is to the upside, and perhaps sooner than later given the generational set-up. I can’t jump up and down anymore than I am. My name. My word. My reputation. All fucking in.
I got no place left to go.
So please Jimmy. Come home. And if you can’t be a friend to me, be a friend to your audience.
But be a friend to me, too. Because 30 year relationships are rare. And there was that time with Mutumbo, that time with Gene H, that time with…
OK, fair. Some things will remain in the vault, as they should.
Lots of memories, and most of them good.
Let’s make some more; while making your audience some coin in the process.