Jeff Siegel of Green Chip Stocks is offering a seminar on cannabis investing at the High Times Harvest Cup. He tells High Times about his journey from smoking pot for the first time to building his thriving investment business.

I was 17 when I read my first issue of High Times.

I found it in a pile of Playboys and Penthouses that my buddy had stashed in his parents’ shed in the backyard.

The magazines were pretty beat up and smelled of mildew.

It’s funny, but whenever I catch a whiff of that mildew magazine smell, I’m immediately transported back to that day when I saw the image of what was, at that time, the latest in growing technology.

Understand, up to this point, the only thing I knew about cannabis was where to get a quick dime bag and how to hide it from my parents.  And it was something I rarely discussed outside of my small circle of friends.

The truth is, I grew up in a very conservative town where most kids looked down upon pot smokers. So needless to say, I didn’t have many friends at school. Especially after a bunch of the more popular kids caught me smoking a joint during gym class.

I hid it in my sock, and my buddy Mark and I hit it behind the bleachers while everyone else was running laps. Oh, the looks of disgust I endured. But I didn’t care. It’s not as if I was going to win any popularity contests. And quite frankly, I had a lot more fun getting high with Mark than I did trying to impress my gym teacher with how fast I could run a mile.

Of course, once word got out that I was one of “those guys,” I was quickly dismissed as a loser. Someone who would never make it in the world. I’d be poor, lonely and likely in jail. Boy were they wrong!

From Weed to Wealth

I make no apologies for my love of the plant.

Although I don’t smoke like I did back in high school, I get much pleasure and stress relief from the very thing I was told would keep me from a world of success and happiness. And in fact, I can attribute much of my success today to cannabis.

You see, not long after college, I began my journey into the world of finance, apprenticing under a number of pretty well-respected investment analysts.

I learned the ins and outs of investing and eventually ended up launching my own investment advisory service where I’ve helped thousands of people make a lot of money by investing in companies that are aligned with a set of values that reward things like social equity, environmentalism and social responsibility.

I began focusing primarily on renewable energy and organic food companies, but over the past four years, nearly every investment I’ve made has been in the cannabis space. And it’s been these investments that have helped me create far more wealth for my clients than even I ever imagined.

Getting Rich On Weed

Most of my clients are high net-worth individuals who typically invest about $50,000 in any particular stock I recommend.

Those folks love me right now, too.

The first three cannabis stocks I recommended were Canopy Growth Corporation, Aphria, Inc., and OrganiGram.

We got into Canopy Growth Corporation at $1.60 a share. Today, the stock trades for about $13.00.  That means that an initial $50,000 investment is now worth about $400,000.

We got into Aphria, Inc. at $1.13. Today, the stock trades for about $7.00. That means that an initial $50,000 investment is now worth about $300,000.

And we got into OrganiGram at $0.40 a share. Today the stock trades for about $3.00. That means that an initial $50,000 investment is now worth about $350,000.

Total those three up, and you’re looking at a pure profit of $900,000.

That’s $900,000 from investing in weed!

So much for that loser stoner stereotype.

Of course, the best revenge is success. And by investing in cannabis, I enjoy an immense amount of both. So much, in fact, that I now spend a lot of my time on the road, speaking to other cannabis enthusiasts about how they can also profit from the plant—and do so on their own terms.

On November 11, I’ll be speaking at the High Times Harvest Cup in San Bernardino, California. My session is called Cannabis Investing: 101, and it’s free for anyone attending the event. I’ll be sharing some of my tips for making money in the cannabis space, and I’ll also be around to answer any specific questions you might have.  (Just so long as it doesn’t coincide with Lil’ Dicky’s set, which I’m incredibly excited to check out.)

I look forward to seeing you there and helping you create wealth by investing in the plant we all love so much.