The claim: Nancy Pelosi bought stock in a cannabis company days before federal marijuana pardons
President Joe Biden said on Oct. 6 that he would pardon thousands of people with federal convictions for marijuana possession, a pledge made alongside a request for federal agencies to review how severely marijuana is treated under federal law. The revelation was a boon for publicly traded cannabis companies.
Viral social media posts also claimed it was a moneymaker for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The claims linked her to Canopy Growth, a company traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker WEED, which saw its stock price soar the day of Biden’s announcement.
“Nancy Pelosi bought 10,000,000 shares of $WEED stock 4 days before it exploded higher,” one Facebook user wrote in an Oct. 8 post. “Weed stocks skyrocketed on Thursday, and nancy (sic) Pelosi turned $80m investment into a $120m investment.”
The viral post questions the legality of such an investment, suggesting it was insider trading.
Another version of the claim was shared more than 200 times on Facebook before being deleted by the user. That iteration also included an image of a purported tweet claiming Reuters reported the investment and was shared more than 4,000 times by Monday.
But the claim is false.
There is no evidence Pelosi bought stock in a cannabis company days before Biden announced the federal marijuana possession pardons. Pelosi’s spokesperson said no such transaction happened….
