Cannabis Industry vs. ESG Cartel “Woke” – Cannabis | weed | marijuana

What role does the ‘woke’ ESG cartel play in the cannabis industry?

Despite legalization efforts in western countries, cannabis still has a bad reputation. Authorities call it addictive and claim it causes psychosis and poor mental health.

They will say that the cannabis industry uses too much water, causes too much pollution, and point out other dire environmental practices that developed during Prohibition.

Hence the Environmental Social Governance (ESG) woke cartel has come to save the day. People like growing and consuming cannabis. We can’t have that!

Rather than measuring success in terms of satisfied customers and growing profit margins, ESG advocates say business owners must balance the success of the cannabis industry against environmental, social, and governmental considerations.

But as Elon Musk rightly tweeted, “ESG is a scam”.

ESG investing vs. common sense

Environmental, social governance (ESG) investing is a type of activist index fund that the cannabis industry should avoid like the plague.

Traditionally, you assess a company’s profitability with balance sheets, cash flow statements, income statements, statements of equity, etc.

Typically, they calculate metrics to give you insight into the financial health of the company.

A debt ratio indicates how high the ratio of equity and debt is to financing the company’s assets.

A cash to asset ratio that compares current assets to liabilities. A return on equity is the return on net income as a percentage of shareholders’ equity.

Or net profit margin. This shows the company’s efficiency in controlling costs. A higher net profit margin indicates more efficiency in converting revenue into actual profit.

Many people struggle with these concepts. Or they don’t know about it. And not just your average Joe.

Think of political leaders blaming inflation on “corporate greed.” Big grocery chains report record profits. This has led leftist demagogues to call for a wealth tax.

But if you look past the headlines, you’ll find that the net profit margins are either the same or, in some cases, lower.

Or take Canada’s licensed cannabis producers. How many are cash flow positive?

The complex capitalist economy involves more than just “profit and loss”. But critics of capitalism usually don’t see the problem that far.

This leads us to environmental investing, social governance investing or ESG.

What is ESG investing?

The cannabis industry would be wise to avoid ESG-centric investing if it can.

Similar to how unions reduce productivity to pursue political goals, a situation where ESG investing becomes mandatory is problematic.

Suddenly, a company’s financial health does not depend on whether it effectively serves consumers, but on the standards set by politics.

The Environmental, Social, and Governance Index is a Chinese-style social creditworthiness index for companies.

Many may cheer that “we” are police companies. But this is a simplified reading, requiring nothing more than cursory analysis.

ESG has one goal: to create a woke cartel.

Just as governments have divided citizens with domestic Covid vaccination records, ESG aims to split the cannabis industry in two.

There will be those who join ESG’s awakened demands. And then some prefer to run their business based on input from their customers.

Just as you couldn’t engage in basic activity without a Vax pass, cannabis companies that fail to comply with ESG will naturally find investments drying up.

It will be harder to do business if you are “non-compliant”.

Proof that ESG is a scam

Who is this cartel woken up by ESG? And why is it a scam for everyone, not just the cannabis industry?

Take Elon Musk for example. He removed Tesla from the S&P 500’s ESG index earlier this year.

Tesla has produced more electric vehicles that people want to buy and drive than any other automaker.

That should have put Tesla #1 on the ESG index, right?

No, Exxon Mobil ranks higher than Tesla, as does JP Morgan, the world’s largest investor in oil producers.

Why does Tesla rank lower than literal greenhouse gas producers and investors?

Apparently it had to do with Tesla’s CO2 strategy and codes of conduct. Tesla didn’t have a “low-carbon strategy.” Which seems more important than actually producing fewer tons of carbon.

Tesla also suffered allegations of racial discrimination and poor working conditions at its Fremont factory.

Well, no one says these aren’t issues that should or shouldn’t affect the bottom line. But who decides? The buying public? Or an ESG index led by companies and global technocrats at the World Economic Forum?

ESG is a political spectacle. It is said to separate the awakened from the unawakened. And ever since Elon Musk called the Covid lockdowns fascist politics, he’s been in the ‘unawakened’ category.

BlackRock & Vanguard: Should the Cannabis Industry Worry About ESG?

BlackRock is the world’s largest wealth manager, Vanguard is second. Both stand behind what they call “stakeholder capitalism,” a belief that corporations should benefit “stakeholders” rather than their shareholders.

In his 2021 Letter to CEOs, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink stated that “climate risk is an investment risk.”

“The creation of sustainable index investing has enabled massive capital acceleration for companies that are better prepared for climate risks.

“And because this will have such a dramatic impact on capital allocation, every management team and board needs to consider how this will affect their company’s shares.”

Or as World Economic Forum Founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab put it: “Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to technology, must be transformed. In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

Or, to quote Fink: “It’s not a social or ideological agenda. It hasn’t “woken up”. It’s capitalism.”

But that is clearly corporatism, also known as economic fascism. A handful of large companies coordinate production and interest groups dictate societal norms.

Corporate power combines with state power to advance ideological agendas. In this case, they dismantle small businesses and create a social credit system.

The end result will be a further concentration of corporate power, fewer individual liberties, and much more propaganda about how good your suffering is for the planet.

Yes, the cannabis industry should be concerned about ESG. ESG is not a future hypothesis. It is already here.

Cannabis industry already infected by ESG

One doesn’t have to go far to realize that the cannabis industry is already infected with ESG-centric ideas.

Canadian company HEXO has publicly stated that it wants to be carbon neutral. The same goes for edibles maker Wyld, which wants to make biodegradable packaging.

Well that sounds good. And in many cases it is. The legalization of Justin Trudeau has produced so much plastic waste. If someone were to give their government an honest ESG rating, it would have to be negative.

But of course ESG doesn’t work that way.

Cannabis company Trulieve has its own ESG report. They even have an ESG board of directors and flaunt their commitments to “Diversity, Inclusion and Equity”.

Cannabis companies are entering the ESG world without a thorough understanding of what it means.

On the one hand, you lose your company’s autonomy to unelected bureaucrats and corporate wealth managers.

On the other hand, you lose customers. “Get Wake, Go Broke” is a mantra that keeps proving to be true.

Cannabis users want quality cannabis. Only racists care about the skin color or ethnicity of the grower or budtender.

ESG is an index to measure compliance with the world’s elite.

And some take the propaganda at its word. This ESG is about climate change. That those who disagree with Schwab and the WEF are “right-wing extremists”.

These people are in for a rude awakening.

footnote(s)

https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letterhttps://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/now-is-the-time-for-a- great-reset/https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/2021-larry-fink-ceo-letterhttps://www.indexologyblog.com/2022/05/17/the-rebalancing-act-of- the-sp-500-esg-index/https://seekingalpha.com/article/4512804-rebalancing-act-of-sp-500-esg-indexhttps://www.gobankingrates.com/investing/strategy/if- your-money-is-in-these-banks-you-could-be-invested-in-oil-gas/https://www.statista.com/statistics/272709/top-10-ol-und-gas- Companies-worldwide-based on market value/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-19/tesla-s-removal-from-sp-index-sparks-debate-about- esg-ratingshttps ://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1526958110023245829https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/06/08/2243398/0/en/HEXO-Corp-commits-to-ESG-Leadership -starts-to-offset-100-carbon-emissions-and-plastic-packaging.htmlhttps://www.trulieve.com/esg-d egg initiatives