The Senate Banking Committee approved the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act on Wednesday, marking the first time Senate members have voted in favor of legislation that would allow cannabis businesses access to banks.

Wednesday at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Chicago, Illinois, several prominent players in the cannabis space discussed the broader regulatory landscape in the U.S.

"We can't touch the plant," said Ann Gillin Lefever, executive vice president of corporate affairs at Village Farms International Inc (NASDAQ:VFF).

Most cannabis companies have viable operations, but they can't cross the border given current federal regulations. In order to maintain Nasdaq listing requirements, cannabis companies can't engage in any plant-touching activities.

Cannabis companies have proven that they can survive. The ones that are still around are battle tested, Lefever said. 

"Let's not forget this is a business that was nothing five years ago," she said.

Canopy Growth Corp (NASDAQ:CGC) CEO David Klein explained that most people don't realize that a lot of cannabis companies have a significant presence in the U.S.

"We already have operations in the U.S., but ... you have to work around regulatory requirements in order to create value out of those businesses," he said.

Canopy Growth's U.S. businesses are already profitable, but because of regulatory roadblocks, it's hard to talk about the success. Cannabis reform would allow the company to talk openly about its spectrum of businesses, he said.

The future of the cannabis industry is less likely to be one where everyone tries to do everything and instead focuses on what they are good at and then partners with other companies, Klein said. 

He noted that it's hard to be successful in retail if you are not doing it at scale. 

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SNDL Inc (NASDAQ:SNDL) is one company focused on scaling retail operations. 

CEO Zach George noted that anyone who wants to own consumer relationships needs to have a very strong presence in retail. SNDL has 170 locations in Canada and another 196 dispensaries in the U.S. 

"In the current framework, it's a critical link in the chain," George said. 

Current regulations aren't consistent in Canada either, he said, adding what's going on in Canada can act as a roadmap for what to expect in the U.S.

"While it's got a relatively small population, there are a lot of insights that you can glean from what's happening in Canada now relative to what are expectations are for the development of the U.S. market," he said. 

"So it would be fair to say that scaled retailers in Canada today are generating more free cash flow and more profitability than the average license producer peer in the Canadian market."

Beau Whitney, founder of Whitney Economics, echoed a lot of the same sentiment of the cannabis executives. Canada was the first industrialized country to provide legal access to recreational cannabis, so they are leading the way, Whitney said.

"They're setting the stage for everybody else," he said.

Whitney noted that the cannabis space is shaping up to look a lot like the semiconductor industry, where companies focus on the things they are good at. 

In the semiconductor industry, you have a design team designing the chips. Once the design is complete, the company outsources the next steps to other chip companies around the world. 

"The same thing is happening and trending in cannabis where a major company will develop a brand or develop a recipe or a product line and then once that's locked down, then they will outsource it to various states. That's a low-touch model that's hugely profitable," he said. 

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Image: Canopy CEO David Klein