Why Tilray Stock Leaped 8% Higher on Tuesday

The slow-walk process that is potential de facto marijuana legalization in this country seemed to take a little step forward on Tuesday. This positively affected certain cannabis stocks based in both the U.S. and Canada, notably Tilray Brands (NASDAQ: TLRY), which rose more than 8% in price that day.

Cautiously supportive

Industry news site MarijuanaMoment.com reported that it had conducted a series of interviews with Republican senators last week. Somewhat unexpectedly for members of a party that has traditionally been more resistant to pot law reform, several of them said that essentially decriminalizing the drug would be a positive move.

Image source: Getty Images.

MarijuanaMoment.com interviewed Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota for the article.

Murkowski said of the proposed shifting of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) -- which would basically make it legal -- that "it's totally a game changer."

Cramer, when discussing President Trump's current contemplation of the shift, said that he was "open-minded to some of it."

He added a caveat, though, stating, "I want to be incremental. I want to recognize states are changing the rules already, and we should probably pay some attention to that."

Broad reform still needed

The current, highly challenged status of the marijuana industry is because legalization is currently in a haphazard, patchwork state across this country. Opinion polls regularly find that the U.S. public is behind reform measures such as the rescheduling; slowly but (perhaps) surely, influential politicians are getting on board, too.

Investors in Tilray and its peers are clearly happy with this momentum.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Tilray Brands. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.