Canada missed its chance to be the world's leading marijuana, says chief investment bank

(Bloomberg) – Canada has "blamed" the legalization of cannabis and is quickly losing ground to the United States, according to the founder of one of the largest investment banks in the industry.

According to Neil Selfe, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Infor Financial Group Inc., a lack of political innovation, a complex set of provincial regulations, and severe marketing and branding restrictions have left companies with Canadian pottery devouring.

"I think we had a real chance to be world leaders," said Selfe in an interview at Bloomberg's Toronto office. Yet eight months after the legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes in Canada, Canopy Growth Corp. is the only Canadian pottery company he calls a world leader. Its big American companies outperform others, even though marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.

"It's a real consumer product in the big American states where it's legal, and it's not yet the case in Canada when we were first," he said.

States like California sell several products, have well-known brands and even allow home delivery, but the Canadian market is limited to dried oils and flowers and the brand "does not exist," said Selfe.

"It's almost like buying something dirty in brown paper bags," he said. "It's like alcohol in the 60s".

The non-intoxicant cannabis compound, CBD, is one example. Although marijuana is still clbadified as heroin among the most harmful drugs in the United States, the federal government legalized the CBD derived from hemp in December. Large US retailers like CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. already sells CBD products such as lotions and topicals, but they are not yet legal in Canada. CBD legal products such as oil and dried flowers can only be sold in dispensaries.

"It's a mess," said Selfe.