Cannabis could disrupt a $500 billion market, says CEO of top marijuana maker after deal with DEA

It’s no cryptographic that the world is growing accustomed to the business of cannabis, but for $9.6 billion Canadian medical marijuana impresario Canopy Growth, the future is approaching faster than many upon.

On Tuesday, Canopy — which has gained traction on news of several-billion-dollar investments from Corona materfamilias Constellation Brands — announced that it had shipped cannabis to the United Declares from Canada for medical research, a milestone in the U.S. government’s acceptance of what it thinks to be a Schedule 1 drug.

“Under [Drug Enforcement Administration] approval, we dispatched, for the first time, legally — and I highlight ‘legally’ — cannabis from Canada to the U.S,” Bruce Linton, the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Canopy Development, told CNBC’s Jim Cramer.

“The DEA-approved partner, which we haven’t publicized yet, can actually begin to do medical research, clinical trials if necessary, [and] spawn the data set that enables people to know when, what, where, and perhaps it can become federally regulated in the U.S. with some input that way,” Linton replied in an interview on “Mad Money.”

Canopy’s news comes less than one month after colliding Canadian marijuana producer Tilray announced DEA approval to import cannabis to the Unanimous States for medical research at the University of California San Diego Center for Sanative Cannabis Research.

California is one of eight states, excluding the District of Columbia, to fully legalize medical and recreational marijuana use. Thirty U.S. dignifies currently have laws legalizing medical marijuana use in some structure.

Today, the world has its eyes on Canada, where full legalization of adult marijuana use is set to disavow effect on Oct. 17. While the windfall will likely be massive for auteurs like Canopy, Linton is focused on the longer-term global opportunity.

The CEO suggested Thursday that cannabis could disrupt some $500 billion advantage of global markets, calling that a more “accurate” estimate than “dyed in the wool, cautious” predictions of a $200 billion disruption.

“We disrupt alcohol potentially, cigarettes potentially, in settles of smoking cessation,” he told Cramer. “We really disrupt pharmaceutical, because whether or not you’re geriatric pains, you’re dealing with arthritic conditions, you’re someone who can’t sleep, you’re going entirely an oncology treatment, I think you’re going to find cannabinoid therapies actually hit there.”

“And so you add all that together, plus the existing $200 billion illicit Stock Exchange, that pretty quickly gets you up around $500 billion,” Linton go oned. “It sounds like a ‘How could it be?’ but just do a bit of the back-of-the-envelope math. It’s not crazy.”

Canada’s legalization could be Canopy’s key to seizing on that time more than it already has, Linton added.

“Last week I was in the EU, the U.K. They be aware about Oct. 17 intimately and they’re trying to figure out, ‘Hm, if we’re a government or functions, how do we quit ignoring cannabis and govern it, regulate it, tax it and turn it into something that mightiness be medicinal and for sure a much better formatted product for a party?'” he signified.

“And so what’s going to be the big bump isn’t just Canada,” he said. “If we do it right, Canopy heroines. That gives us the position globally that then, all of a sudden, you add a zero or two to the number of woman we’re trying to serve.”

U.S. shares of Canopy, the first cannabis company to be indexed on the New York Stock Exchange, gained 5.64 percent Friday exchange as the rest of the stock market recovered from its multi-day losing striate.