Canopy Growth (CGC) stock surged 9.4% through noon ET Monday morning -- and it's not hard to figure out why.

Over the weekend, as you may have heard, President Joe Biden announced he will not run for reelection this year, and Vice President Kamala Harris is currently the most likely candidate to take his place. Investors who recall the VP's pro-marijuana legalization comments from the last election are betting this bodes well for marijuana stocks in general... and for Canopy Growth stock in particular.

Two views of marijuana legalization

Four years ago, plus or minus a few months, then-Senator Harris made news when, in the course of a debate with then-VP Mike Pence, she promised that a Biden-Harris administration would "decriminalize marijuana, and we will expunge the records of those who have been convicted of marijuana."

That obviously didn't happen, and a big part of the reason why it didn't happen is that it took President Biden awhile to come around to VP Harris' way of thinking. Initially supportive of only "modest reforms" such as expunging criminal records of some people convicted of marijuana possession in states where it had become legal, the President only recently went on record supporting more aggressive moves such as rescheduling marijuana as a Schedule III (rather than Schedule I) drug.

Is Canopy Growth stock a buy?

Logically, a Biden-less administration would swing the pendulum even farther in favor of full-scale federal legalization of marijuana. So what would that mean for Canopy Growth stock?

Potentially, quite a lot.

Anticipating that legalization is imminent, Canopy Growth has been taking steps to set itself up to dominate a newly legal U.S. marijuana market, for example, by setting up a Canopy USA business that could roll up smaller cannabis companies into a marijuana super company.

Admittedly, it wouldn't be the only player in the market. Legal cannabis will attract a lot of competition. But Canopy Growth would have a decent head start. The question investors need to ask themselves now is whether that will be enough to turn cash-burning Canopy profitable in time to save the company.