COMMENT: Your pension pot may be about to take on a whole new meaning. I promise there'll be no more puns about this week's topic - the unfolding cannabis investment boom. And let me just pre-empt the outrage. As far as I am concerned, recreational cannabis is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that medicinal cannabis can help people living with a range of conditions from epilepsy to MS.
Like alcohol and tobacco, cannabis looks poised to become a huge global market. Next month, recreational use will be legalised in Canada. It is already legal in 30 US states for medicinal purposes and in eight recreationally.
Medicinal cannabis is legal in Germany. In the UK, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, was advised by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs that medical cannabis has therapeutic effects.
Unsurprisingly, the money-making potential of weed has caught the attention of investors. If you want to know what's going on, follow the money.
Cannabis-related stocks have been soaring, in what is starting to look like the early stages of a classic investment bubble. On one day last week the hottest stock in the sector, Canadian medical cannabis group Tilray, saw its share price double then lose all its gains before the trading session was out. Having floated at US$17 ($25.60) a share earlier this year on Nasdaq, it cleared $300 briefly and, despite its fall, remains a 10-bagger in just two months, at around US$175. This is reminiscent of last year's cryptocurrency bubble but to me it feels more like the dot.com boom of 20 years ago.