Welcome to my latest video presentation. Below is a condensed transcript. The video contains additional details and several charts.

In a capitalist society, nearly everything gets commoditized. Every Valentine’s Day, we get inundated with advertisements that equate love with overpriced diamonds. Every Christmas, men are encouraged to buy their wives luxury SUVs as presents. “Happiness” is pursued with a maxed-out credit card.

During the 1960s, the concepts of “peace, love and understanding” were turned into ad jingles for consumer products. And today, marijuana, once associated with youth, rebellion, and illicit pleasure, is Big Business.

Corporate America is muscling into the pot business. Even psychedelics, the substances touted in countercultural rock anthems such as “White Rabbit,” are becoming Psychedelics, Incorporated and the province of Big Pharma.

If you’re an investor looking for the growth juggernaut of your lifetime, you’ve found it in marijuana. Should your conscience bother you about investing in weed? Consider a scientific fact: marijuana is, by far, less harmful and addictive than tobacco and alcohol.

Let’s look at two overarching business trends in the marijuana industry: consolidation and the development of intellectual property rights.

Mergers and acquisitions…

Last year was a boom time for marijuana mergers and acquisitions (M&A), as pot companies used consolidation to obtain new products and technologies; expand markets; forge strategic alliances; eliminate competitors; buy out major investors; and generate economies of scale.

One salient trend is for giant global conglomerates involved in the pharmaceutical, food, beverage, and tobacco segments to buy-out smaller marijuana companies.

In 2021, 306 M&A transactions were reported through December, compared to 86 transactions reported in 2020, for a whopping year-over-year increase of 306%, according to Viridian Capital Advisors.

The cannabis industry is positioned for another blockbuster year of M&A activity. Investment cash has been pouring into the cannabis industry, as hedge funds, venture capitalists, and individual investors seek alternative growth prospects amid a turbulent broader market.

Much of this M&A activity is occurring in Europe. With Germany’s plan to legalize adult-use cannabis, several transnational U.S.-based cannabis companies are already announcing partnerships, investments, and M&As to carve out footholds across the country’s estimated $14.5 billion cannabis market opportunity.

Germany is the biggest economy in the European Union and the growth engine for the region. The country also sets the pace for social reform within the EU.

U.S.-based multi-state operators (MSOs) also are heavily involved in M&A, due to their concentrated economic clout. State governments are trying to make it easier for these MSOs to buy complementary companies, in large part because of the jobs created by marijuana.

An expanding source of fresh capital for marijuana companies has been public offerings via the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulation A (aka “Reg A”).

Watch This Video: The New Frontier of Raising Capital

Under federal securities laws, any offer or sale of a security must either be registered with the SEC or meet an exemption. One such exemption is Reg A, which allows companies to offer and sell their securities without having to register the offering with the SEC. Reg A entails various “tiers” and capital limits; it’s generally designed to give a leg-up for small-cap companies.

Intellectual property assets…

As the marijuana industry rapidly expands, we’ve witnessed the accelerating development of intellectual property (IP) assets in all sectors, notably in agricultural and retail. For many cannabis entrepreneurs, their IP is their most valuable asset.

IP assets include copyrights, patents, trademarks, brands, and corporate names. Many marijuana farms are partnered with or own a stake in a research facility where they develop genetic strains and experiment with product formulation.

Other growers, manufacturers, or retail dispensaries develop brand names and trademarks to differentiate their companies and products in a crowded marketplace.

Legal practices that specialize in developing, registering, and protecting IP assets are a fast-growing aspect of the cannabis industry. Our society has become increasingly litigious, and marijuana is no exception.

There’s been a rising number of lawsuits filed by pot companies to defend their IP assets against unauthorized expropriation. Many IP rights are willfully ignored by competitors.

Editor’s Note: I urge you to read my new book: The Wide World of Weed and Psychedelics. It’s your definitive guide for making money in the thriving cannabis and psychedelics industries.

Inside the pages of my book, I reveal the stunning facts behind the world of legal marijuana and psychedelics, including the countless ways they could alter the very fabric of society, for generations to come. Click here to get your free copy.

John Persinos is the editorial director of Investing Daily.

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