Tag: 2020

A strange year has wound up with a whimper rather than a bang as two of the largest Canadian public cannabis companies merge in a cashless transaction and one of them adds dronabinol to its product roster.

It is unlikely that the memory of 2020 will recede any time soon. The Pandemic created new opportunities, however, for many in the cannabis industry who could brave the course of events, starting in the United States and Canada. Dispensaries were labeled “essential” and being allowed to stay open (although the cannabis club world was thrown into disarray in places like Spain) meant a vital difference to many in the industry.

Further afield, and at the end of the year, global and regional regulatory mandates also moved the needle forward, even if in some instances incrementally. The UN vote to move cannabis out of Schedule IV is a mere political nod to the obvious without shaking any more boats. The reality is that Schedule I designation means that individual countries and regions beyond that, will now have to shoulder through all the messy details of both legalization and incorporation of the drug into other regulatory buckets and business environments. The EC vote on hemp, namely that CBD is not a narcotic was far more meaningful, along with the ability to now market hemp products openly like any other good. Look for European innovation on that front as a result, and as of early next year. That includes new media, new technology, and of course a new debate about the entire ball of wax as Luxembourg finally begins its recreational market and Holland ushers in a more regulated industry.

That said, it is also unavoidable to note that 2020 was certainly not a good year for big pot, no matter the temporary bounce in stock prices for a few. Delays in the production schedule for new facilities in Germany caused by Covid have clearly had an effect on the remaining two bid winners. Wayland, it should be remembered, was the only bid winner which had actually spent money on production facilities that became operational before the awarding of the bid. They merged with ICC right as the bid was awarded, and the bid production contracts have ended up with Demecan. Last week, it emerged that Aphria was merging with Tilray in a similar fashion. Aurora has also struggled, closing a huge cultivation space in Canada.

The ghosts of the first German tender are still in the room even as the entire continent struggles with how to classify the plant, and now, in the aftermath of Covid, economic redevelopment.

One thing is for sure. Cannabis is going to be on the drawing boards of every country as the world rebuilds from Covid. And if that is not the best, most catchy holiday season’s greetings, it doesn’t sound all that bad at this point. There is a light, indeed at the end of a very long tunnel.

Be sure to book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Europe in 2021!

Inevitably, the new year’s headlines are full of ‘what is wrong with the cannabis industry?’ Navel-gazing articles on the inherent ‘death’ of ‘all of this cannabis madness’ have hit the blogosphere if not major media fast and furious as the calendar flipped over to a new year and decade.

How legit are these critiques and predictions?

1. Yes, there is a lot of hype in this industry. What on earth does one expect as patients, advocates and entrepreneurs battle not only to overturn 100 years of draconian punishment but set up a regulated business in its place? Yes, there are also scams, and criminals in this industry, with or without criminal convictions. But there are also a lot of people who have been unfairly convicted in the past, and have, literally if not figuratively, turned over a new leaf. There are many fascinating people in the industry who also pay lawyers and consultants to make sure they are operating on the correct side of legit. 
2. Yes, there have been very large embarrassing public scandals – including about accountability to not only rules and regulators but stockholders. Damning the entire industry, however, does no good either, and there is also clearly a shifting as well as changing of the guard. 
3. Yes, there are many issues and problems on the ground everywhere. In Europe over the last several years, licensed store owners have fought battles from Spain and Italy to now Germany over basic rights to sell non-THC flowers from various sources. None of these issues is strange news to those on the North American side of the conversation if just a few more years delayed.
4. No, the industry is not “dead.” The biggest guys are taking a bit of a beating as governments now request to see more detailed and formal documentation. That is a conversation that has been in the room here for the past four years and has not changed. So far, despite setbacks, the industry is still moving forward. One big example? The first cannabis ETF was allowed to trade on the Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt this year. For industry veterans, this is a major victory to a hard-fought battle, if not, indeed the end of the war.
5. No, the industry is not “over.” In fact, it is just getting started. There have been some big bumps along the way, some high flying flameouts, and a lot of dead ends. But all is par for the course in the birth of a new industry if not its normalization. And final, full, legalization.

Be sure to attend one of the International Cannabis Business Conference’s cannabis business conferences in Europe in 2020. Book your tickets now for Barcelona, Berlin, and Bern!

Hard as it is to believe, this multi-billion dollar baby was mostly illegal everywhere just six short years ago. How much the world has changed – and in almost every way.

This year, as the world begins its third decade of the 21st century, cannabis is morphing yet again, but along lines and via trends that have been much in the offing over the last decade if not century. What are those trends?

1. Regulation and of the international, regional and domestic kind is in the room and in every way. From certifying products and supply chains along the way to making regulatory arguments about how the plant should be accessed and treated, these are the conversations that make deals happen. 
2. CBD Hype is absolutely in Europe – but it is a different animal here than anywhere else. As countries now face determining what is “safe,” if not “normal,” this kicks up other discussions about the regional and international treatment of not only this plant, and its processing, but other kinds of commodities. Not only is a whole set of regulations in flux across Europe that affects all edibles, but Novel Food is a bugabear that the industry, so far, has not widely cracked.
3. Prices Are Finally Falling. The German government has set a reference price and it is comfortably within the range set by Italy and Luxembourg. External competitors both within and adjacent to Europe (see Poland and Macedonia) have so far been dealt a blow by the shifting winds of interpretation of not only GMP but other global standards and rules that can only be changed at an international level (read the World Health Organization and the UN) are still the ruling determinates of who gets to trade with whom. This is going to be a long road.
4. Cannabis is a commodity – like any other. That said, the paths into this industry, starting with financing, are still anything but “normal.” That said, there is a normalization afoot, even in some of the more untraditional practices that previously raised eyebrows. The role of investment banks in this industry, given the popularity of reverse IPOs and pooled capital funds, is now in question. How private equity globally responds is much in the room this year.
5. 2022 is on the calendar and expect recreational discussions to take off only after this date. In the meantime, there are new opportunities opening, new sales channels forming and new coalitions in the offing. It is a fertile time to be in the industry, no matter how challenging it still often is.

Do not miss the International Cannabis Business Conference’s conferences this year in North America and Europe!