In anti-drug Sweden, investors take shine to cannabis stocks

STOCKHOLM(Reuters) – Growing numbers of Swedish investors are getting a buzz from trading in listed marijuana stocks even though the country has some of Europe’s most restrictive drug laws.

Shares in companies including Canadian cannabis producers Aurora and Canopy Growth and Sweden’s Heliospectra, which makes lighting for greenhouses that can be used to grow the plant, were the most heavily traded sector in January and February at online stockbroker Nordnet.

While private investors sold heavyweight Swedish stocks such as H&M, Nordea and Ericsson, cannabis stocks drew in around 700 million Swedish crowns ($85 million) over the period.

“It feels like a Klondyke rush. There is a new, big market opening up,” said Joakim Bornold at Nordnet. Investors are betting on cannabis as a growth market as a number of American states, including California, legalize marijuana used in healing for at least 3,000 years and smoked recreationally — and often illegally — around the globe.

Canada…