Former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner is already a millionaire. But he currently stands to make even more millions from marijuana, despite opposing weed legalization for the entirety of his 24-year career in Congress.
According to a New York Times report, Boehner owns 625,000 shares in Acreage Holdings, a cannabis investment firm that bankrolls legal pot operations in 14 states. He joined the board at Acreage last year, just two years after retiring from Congress.
In May, Acreage announced a deal with Canopy Growth, the world’s largest cannabis company. The deal basically sells Acreage off to Canopy for over $3 billion — but only after the US federally legalizes weed. Acreage’s investors will receive an additional $300 million once the deal is finalized. The sale is expected to value Canopy at $18 billion.
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How much, exactly, would Boehner make once Acreage sells to Canopy? That’s unclear, but based on details from the deal, his earnings would likely, at a minimum, be around $17 million.
According to Newsweek, Boehner has worked diligently to convince US lawmakers to reform the nation’s cannabis laws since he joined Acreage. He’s likely making up for past transgressions, seeing as “in the four years that Boehner ran Congress, nearly half a million people (mostly black and Latino) were arrested for selling the drug,” Newsweek wrote.
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