by Robert Hoban Contributor www.forbes.com

The cannabis industry and its participants are caught up in a seemingly endless hunt for capital sources. The early days of the commercially regulated cannabis industry witnessed an abundance of equity investment. Often, this came in absurd amounts based on jaw-dropping valuations across the United States, our neighbors to the North, across LatAm, the European markets, and far beyond.

Never in history has such little due diligence been conducted in any cogent industry prior to the deployment of such substantial sums. Perhaps this was FOMO? Perhaps these investors wanted to capture the first mover advantage, which incidentally, does not seem to apply to the cannabis industry. Whatever the reason, markets have cooled substantially. The days of investors throwing money at cannabis companies have come and gone, at least in the form of equity.