---
title: CRB Monitor Announces Its 2023 Cannabis-linked Sector Review
description: CRB Monitor announces the 2023 updates to its Cannabis-Linked Sector Classification System (CLS).
image: https://www.crbmonitor.com/hubfs/image-png-Jul-03-2023-01-15-06-8681-PM.png
---

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# RESOURCES | Data Updates | Regulatory | Data Updates | Securities

CRB Monitor Announces Its 2023 Cannabis-linked Sector Review

##### Published on July 3, 2023

**James B. Francis, CFA, ****Chief Research Officer, CRB Monitor**

CRB Monitor is pleased to announce that we have completed the 2023 review of our **Cannabis-linked Sector Classification System** for our database of more than 1,700 cannabis-linked securities and more than 1,100 issuers**. **Introduced by CRB Monitor in 2020, Cannabis-linked Sectors have become an essential enhancement to the CRB Monitor securities database and are a necessary component of many of our institutional clients’ cannabis-related processes.

The latest release of CRB Monitor’s Cannabis-linked Sector Classification System features five new sectors:

- CBD - Food, Beverage & Tobacco
- CBD - Online Wholesale and Retail
- CBD - Personal Products
- CBD - Pharma & Biotech
- CBD - Traditional Retail

There were no other additions or deletions.

The impetus for adding these five CBD-related sectors was the result of inquiries from CRB Monitor’s users in the APAC region. In February of this year, Hong Kong authorities enacted a new law that now “criminalizes the possession and consumption of cannabidiol”, the non-psychoactive ingredient in cannabis plants. According to [a report on the website Bloomberg.com](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-02/hong-kong-reopening-traveling-with-cbd-could-land-jail-sentence-high-fine), “*anyone found guilty of importing, exporting or manufacturing it faces up to life in jail and a fine of HK$5 million ($637,000). Previously the government had limited the ban to cannabis and its psychoactive derivative THC, allowing a nascent CBD industry to grow*.” The reaction reverberated throughout the APAC region, as financial institutions’ compliance teams scrambled to identify publicly-traded companies that earn CBD-based revenue.

CRB Monitor’s solution was to add five (5) new cannabis-linked sectors that effectively classify Tier 2 and Tier 3 CRBs that earn their cannabis-derived revenue from the distribution of CBD-based products. With these new sectors, subscribers now have the ability to implement policy related to businesses that are exclusively “CBD-touching”.

The new CBD-related sectors represented the only updates to CRB Monitor’s list of Cannabis-linked Sectors. [While two (2) sectors, **Construction Materials** and **Diversified Cannabis**, now have no underlying constituent businesses, the decision was made to retain them until the next review.]

With these changes, the list of CRB Monitor Cannabis-linked Sectors are as follows:        

![](https://www.crbmonitor.com/hubfs/image-png-Jul-03-2023-01-15-06-8681-PM.png)

**CRB Monitor’s Cannabis-linked Sector Classification System**

The process of researching companies’ underlying links to the cannabis industry has resulted in what we believe is the standard in cannabis-linked sector classification. Given CRB Monitor’s deep, proprietary information set, we believe that our sector classification system is an accurate reflection of each CRB’s connection to the cannabis industry.

The need for clarity with regard to sector comes from financial institutions’ limited understanding of publicly-traded companies’ connection to the cannabis space. This limitation has led to widely-used data series, such as MSCI’s [Global Industry Classification System (GICS)](https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/indexes/gics) to place CRBs in sectors and industries that approximate their dominant business line rather than their connection to cannabis. For example, Tier 1 CRBs will frequently reside in either Health Care or Biotech, which does not accurately describe their business activities. We believe that their assigned sector should be related to what they are licensed to do (cultivation, retail, extraction, testing, etc.).

For a more detailed description of CRB Monitor’s Cannabis-linked Sector Classification System and associated methodology, please read [CRB Monitor Announces Cannabis-Linked Sector (CLS) Classification System](https://www.crbmonitor.com/resources/announces-cannabis-linked-sector-classification-system) from May 2021.

**CRB Monitor** is a comprehensive, global database of over 1,700 listed cannabis-related securities, 75,000 private cannabis-related businesses, 199,000 cannabis licenses, and 130,000 individuals with connections to the cannabis space. Our goal is to provide our clients with 100% of the private and publicly-traded global cannabis ecosystem and our subscribers include many of the largest financial institutions worldwide.

> ***Wondering what a Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 CRB is?***
> 
> See our seminal [ACAMS Today](https://www.crbmonitor.com/hubfs/Defining-Marijuana-Related-Business_ACAMS-Today-Sep-2016.pdf) white paper [Defining "Marijuana-Related Business"](https://www.crbmonitor.com/resources/banking-cannabis-marijuana-compliance) and its update [Defining "Cannabis-Related Business"](https://www.crbmonitor.com/resources/defining-cannabis-marijuana-related-business)

 

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