Thor Benson / Cannabis News Box Contributor

There’s been a lot of talk about Big Alcohol fighting cannabis legalization, but it appears one company is embracing cannabis. Constellation Brands, which owns Corona, invested nearly $200 million into a Canadian medical cannabis company called Canopy Growth Corp.

What does this mean for the cannabis industry?

Jason Spatafora, a cannabis industry investor and owner of marijuanastocks.com, told Cannabis News Box that he thinks other major alcohol brands are paying close attention to this investment, and it could mean more Big Alcohol companies will take similar paths.

“They won’t buy out companies but rather diversify their holdings into emerging markets that their consumers also participate in,” he said.

Social use cannabis will be legal in all of Canada next year, so the already significant cannabis industry there is going to get even bigger. Big Alcohol companies likely won’t want to miss out on the profits.

“Let’s not forget that the alcohol industry is also aligned with agriculture via hops, barely etc. so there are also synergies at play,” Spatafora said.

Everyone thought Big Tobacco and Big Pharma would be the main entities that would try to get in on legal cannabis, but it’s clear Big Alcohol isn’t going to miss out on these opportunities. Spatafora believes this major U.S. industry investing in cannabis could further efforts to legalize cannabis at home.

“I believe that as one of the big 3 industries [alcohol, tobacco, pharm] has now officially entered the space it could trigger an arms race of sorts in cannabis,” Spatafora said. “Investors like myself have always believed it would be Big Tobacco or Big Pharma first, this move by Constellation has shifted that paradigm and forced the other two to reevaluate the timing of their respective entries.”

It’s unclear if Big Alcohol getting involved in the cannabis industry will have some major negative effects. But on the positive side of things, it seems likely it will at least help legitimize the cannabis industry and get the country closer to fully legal cannabis.