Cannabis has long been more associated with reducing rather than inducing anxiety among users. But investing in the burgeoning medical marijuana industry is not for the faint-hearted, according to one proponent.
“You better make sure you have charged the batteries in your pacemaker,” says Steve Hawkins, chief executive of Canada-based Horizons ETFs, which runs one of the two most successful marijuana exchange traded funds in the world.
Investors in his fund, the C$1bn ($750m) Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF, have had a turbulent ride. A $10,000 investment at the fund’s launch in May 2017 was worth $25,750 by last September. This then plunged to $15,494 by the end of 2018 but has since recovered to about $24,000.