Marijuana stocks Tilray (TLRY), Cronos Group (CGC) and Cronos Group (CRON) slid after-hours on a report that a U.S. border official said that Canadian industry employees and marijuana investors broadly could be blocked from coming to the U.S.
The news was reported by Politico. Tilray lost 2%. Cronos fell 3.2%. Canopy fell 2.9%.
“If you work for the industry, that is grounds for inadmissibility,” the official, Todd Owen, executive assistant commissioner for the Office of Field Operations, told Politico.
Same goes for if you invest in it. “We don’t recognize that as a legal business,” he said, adding that investors from nations like Israel have been blocked from U.S. entry.
Recreational legalization in Canada, which is only weeks away, could complicate cross-border travel between the two countries, Politico noted. The U.S. still federally forbids marijuana even as more states have legalized it over the past several years.
Owen told Politico the U.S. wouldn’t be asking everyone crossing the border whether they’ve used marijuana, but said authorities might inquire further “if other questions lead there.” Lying about past drug use, he told Politico, represents “fraud and misrepresentation, which carries a lifetime ban.”
Tilray Brings More Cannabis To Germany
Earlier Thursday, Tilray said it had received the OK to export buds into Germany for patients in that nation. The company made its cannabis extract products available in Germany last year. Germany legalized medical marijuana last year.
