If you’ve been reading the cannabis news lately, you will know that the World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested changes to international drug treaties. For a bunch of lucky traders, this meant that pot stock demand soared.

In fact, one Vancouver company called Weekend Unlimited Inc. saw gains of 148 percent the Friday following the announcement of WHO’s international drug treaty regulations; thanks in large part to beating 40 other companies in winning the first ever stock ticker lottery hosted by Canadian exchanges.

Weekend Unlimited’s former trader ticker ‘YOLO’ could soon be getting a new lease of life, after AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF has filed to trade under this specific ticker on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

What does WHO’s international drug treaty recommendation have to do with anything?

The WHO has put forward a recommendation that would remove cannabis and cannabis resins from Schedule IV. As the harshest category of a drug convention that was formed in 1961 to govern international treaties, cannabis’ removal from the Schedule IV category has been long awaited.

In addition to this, the WHO is urging for CBD containing no more than 0.2 percent THC to be eradicated from international control completely. CBD or ‘cannabidiol’ is a non-psychotropic constituent of the plant and has been widely acknowledged for its medicinal potential.

If the changes to international drug treaties that were suggested by WHO are actually adopted, legalization is likely to unfurl rather rapidly.

The WHO’s cannabis recommendations may also encourage “Big Pharma to further assess the global medical cannabis opportunity,” according to BMO analyst Tamy Chen. “The treaty’s recommended cannabis rescheduling provides countries additional political cover to reexamine their current state on cannabis, given it serves as the regulatory framework for many,” writes Kenneth Shea, an Intelligence analyst at Bloomberg.

The proposals will now be put in front of the United Nations’ Commission on Narcotic Drugs, where 53 member nations are expected to vote on them sometime during March.

Cannabis branding is still a predicament faced by 420 businesses

You’d think that rising cannabis stocks and the WHO’s international drug treaty recommendations for cannabis might make it easier to advertise brands that are promoting the leaf and its derivatives, such as oils and extracts.

However, this doesn’t seem to be the case quite yet, what with CBS recently rejecting a commercial from Acreage Holdings that spotlighted cannabis’ medical benefits. Acreage was willing to fork out as much as $5 million for the commercial spot, which runs for around 30 seconds. President of the company George Allen told CNN he was “disappointed by the news but somewhat unsurprised.”

Nonetheless, with more clinical trials on medical cannabis set to commence in the coming year, perhaps the therapeutic potential of pot will be acknowledged by CBS in the near future.