Injunction Function:

The Business of Medical Marijuana in Canada
 

Last Friday BC Federal Court Judge Micheal Manson issued an injunction granting MMAR patients the ability to continue to grow their own medical marijuana. On the surface this seems like a victory for medical marijuana patients in Canada, unfortunately this did nothing for the majority of medical marijuana patients who remain largely underserved in many ways including access to MMJ.  What it did do in the country was save the already established ‘Business of Medical Marijuana’ which has been flourishing in BC under MMAR regulations.  It is no big secret that the majority of MMAR production licences in the province support the vast network of compassion clubs across BC and ultimately the country.   This business which has flourished for the last decade is the main reason the FEDS are trying to regulate away what is a majority British Columbian owned and operated industry. 

Caught in the crossfire of this court battle are the rights of the medical marijuana patients which were completely ignored last Friday.

There are a couple fallacies I want to clear up in this article.

Firstly, the MMAR program did not give Canadians equal access to medical marijuana.
The program needed fixing badly.  Anyone telling you different is only thinking of themselves.  MMAR denied access to the majority of Canadians by providing limited options to acquire marijuana beyond personal production.


The reality before the introduction of Canadian LPs…

If you did not have a green thumb, or know somebody with a green thumb, MMAR did nothing to provide access to Canadians seeking medical marijuana.   

Licenced producers’ soIve a critical problem to the program providing broad access to Canadians where MMAR did not.  That is the one good thing about MMPR.  The problem is that MMAR producers being somewhat business savvy, stepped up to the plate and filled the access void in Canada by supplying the compassion clubs across the country for the last 10 years.  This is not a bad thing and I would not be embarrassed about admitting this.  MMAR people were just helping the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling in providing medical marijuana to all Canadians when government policy fell short. 

 I maintain that most people do not want to grow, do not have the space to grow, nor have the expertise to grow cannabis in their homes.   

They would rather just purchase cannabis.

Proof of this access issue is the vast discrepancy between compassion club memberships across the country and official MMAR memberships.    MMAR did nothing to provide access to medical marijuana so the majority of Canadians using medical marijuana who were not interested in growing their own medicine never bothered signing up for MMAR.  I know I didn’t, and exculsively used compassion clubs for years without ever having official MMAR status.   I only got my grow licence when I wanted to produce cannabis in my half bathroom.  Do a poll at any of the clubs… most compassion club members are not MMAR members.

 You only signed up for MMAR if you want to produce or get free weed.   I was only a MMAR producer officially for 1 year in 2010; I have been a member of 2 compassion clubs for 8 and 7 years now.  I do not have official compassion club membership totals, but they typically run between 500 and 5,000 members with literally hundreds, if not thousands open across the country supporting the majority of medical marijuana users. 

This indicates current medical marijuana usage in Canada is already upwards of half a million Canadians AND not 40,000 that consist in the MMAR program. 

There may be 2,000 to 5,000 dedicated MMAR growers like myself of have a passion for GROWING and it is ingrained culture who you will never get to stop growing marijuana...  these people are not the target market, nor are they a competitive threat… please leave them alone and let them grow their pot.   A 25 plant licence will provide 1 to 2 grams of cannabis oil per day which is full cannabinoid treatment for anyone.
Small amoutns of personal production are not a threat to anyone; personal or public safety, or even corporate threat cannibalizing retail MMJ sales.


CANADIAN MMJ IS ALREADY A $5B BUSINESS!!!

The government MMAR program has licenced 3.5 million plants which I estimate has the potential to produce 3 to 4 million pounds of MMJ per year.    About $6B to $8B of medical marijuana at compassion club prices of $1600/lb. to $2400/lb. for AAA weed.   Certainly a discount to street prices of $3200/lb. or the insane $4500/lb. per pound the MMPR program wants to charge…  

….But it’s NON PROFIT right?

So while BC and the Federal government fight over the business of medical marijuana in Canada.  Medical marijuana patients and medical marijuana continue to suffer in Canada being completely ignored.   The bottom line is even though the judge showed his complete derelict in responsibility in holding charter initiatives in a charter case trying to protect corporate interests…

No judge in the country will convict anyone growing medical marijuana while this injunction is in place.

MMAR licence or no.  

As I predicted, we now have a Wild, Wild, West of Cannabis in Canada because no one ever thought about developing some common sense and practical rules that suit everybody, helped develop the medical marijuana industry in Canada, and didn’t usurp BC’s multi-billion medical marijuana industry. 

This should really be viewed as a good news situation and not bad a news situation for everyone as MMAR growers and LP’s now have a somewhat even playing field and you now have an officially unofficial ‘laissez faire’ medical marijuana system that has been unleashed in Canada where almost anything goes.   

If you want an industry to develop properly… a laissez faire system is ideal.  So ultimately, this is good.

Medical marijuana needs a commercial component in Canada.  It needs a lot more than just a mail order POT business.  Business brings convenience; it brings innovation, and research & development.  For 10 years POTHEADs have been smoking butane laced budder, since business has been involved… we now have a purified and refined budder into shatter.  That is all about business going the extra mile… not a MMAR patient.  Although MMAR patients were the pioneers in this industry and need to be recognized.

Canadian MMJ Needs a Business Component

 It is this type of innovation that the Canadian Medical marijuana scene was missing without corporate involvement and desperately needed.  At the same time the ability to personally produce marijuana is an essential component to the system as well.  It is a cheap affordable alternative to many medications for the poor who could not afford any other alternative.  To take this away from anyone, let alone the most disadvantaged in society, is completely unethical.

A gram per day cannabis oil is a typical dose for a cancer patient fighting cancer.  How can you tell someone fighting cancer they no longer can afford a key component of their treatment?

Many Canadian companies’ share prices have dropped on the injunction news since Friday, but I suggest that this is a second opportunity at cheaper prices of some of these stocks entering into the commercialization of a high flying sector that is already worth in excess of $5B according to the Federal Government’s admission of 3.5M plants authorized in the MMAR program.

It is business that will take this industry forward bringing science, technology, and education to the scene; but it was the MMAR patients who were the pioneers in the industry and should be treated fairly and should not be forgotten.  Nor should they have their MMJ business' rudely stolen by Ottawa.   I think there is room for both MMAR and MMPR in this $5B plus Canadian industry.  In many cases you are already seeing MMAR and MMPR marry with a business like ENRT having shown a willingness to team up with MMAR to help take the industry forward.





One patient has even sold his grow facility for a million dollars!!!   

 

Welcome to the Business of Medical Marijuana in Canada.

Christopher Skidmore

Beat the Market marijuana stocks

MAJOR MMJ RUMOR!!!

Jimmy Pattison and Benson & Hedges Enter the Cannabis Industry

I don't think there can be any bigger news to date for the Cannabis industry.  You knew it was coming  eventually (a cigarette company at least), and it is all but official and rubber stamped and sealed; but hear it this early and to find out exclusively through Beat the Market has yours truly with 12 inch grin from ear to ear.

Jimmy Pattison and Benson & Hedges have gone big into Medical Marijuana.   

To hear about a PM owned company getting into POT?  Not surprising, especially when I have been hearing analysts talking about cigarette companies using their war chests to buy into the E-cigarette game.  Obviously cannabis is the other area of growth for this industry and Phillip Morris has already staked their claim in Canada teaming up with BC BUD and the richest dude in Canada, Jimmy Pattison.   Cannabis has major synergies with e-cigarettes with vaporizing concentrates like budder and shatter becoming a widely popular choice of consuming cannabinoids, ovbiously if you are getting into E-Cigs... cannabis products play a major role in this up and coming market.

The irony eh?

That a 'Cancer Stock' is getting into the business of a substance that prevents cancer and may even play a major role in most cancer treatments in the future.   Does this take Phillip Morris and others out of the sin bin?   If you think Cannabis will play a major role in curing cancer...  it most likely will in your mind.

 What it does do, is give the industry some much needed credibility and reputation.  It brings instant credibility to cannabis and the required capital needed to bring this industry forward.  It will also be a major out for many of these companies as majors like PM open up their war chests to grow by acquisition. 

It means legalization is a foregone conclusion now that PM and Jimmy have entered the fray.

Legalization is going to be sped up dramatically.  If you are reading between the lines, the powers that be seem to be banking on a change in politics at the top with Justin Trudeau and the Liberals... and with Canada's finance minister stepping down yesterday... the winds of political change in Canada continue to blow across the country.


You wondered where all this POT lobby money is coming from?  

Now you know.

Phillip Morris is one of the most recognizable cigarette companies in the world.  With this move they have made it clear where they are looking for growth.  Cannabis and the various recreational products produced with cannabis.


I can tell you right now...  PM isn't getting into the game for for MMJ.   Nope.  PM sees widespread legalization and with the massive success of Colorado this year has ony confimred the lucrative cash cow this industry represents.  And with all the inremental tax revenue pooring in... govts are goingto be much less resistive to change.



HOW CAN YOU NOT SALIVATE at the CASH COW just waiting to be PLUNDERED? 


THE RUMOR

To be sure... Jimmy Pattison wasn't calling me telling me the 'good news'.  I am sure this a begrudging decision at best. One that gets tempered when he realizes this move could double or even triple his net worth. Something billionaires seem to get excited about.

So I am sure he isn't that unhappy. 

I am also pretty sure I am not even supposed to know.  But funny things always seem to happen and for some reason when it comes to my grandfather; I always seem to find out the darnedest things... for whatever strange reason, it is exceptionally hard to keep a secret from me.  People find out I am his grandson and all of a sudden I am a magnet for the all the stories of the bad things he's done and gotten away with over the years.

A magnet!!!

I know stuff Jimmy has hidden from Maureen from 40 years.  


At any rate...

When you are a big freaking rich dude getting into the pot business and order 1000 KW watt light bulbs to Whistler.  People are going to talk.  When you have warehouses stuffed to the brim with POT...

You can't keep that a secret!!! 

Especially when you are big ass billionaire like Jimmy.   

The cannabis community is small and tight knit... and people will always talk.  So here it is...

My ex, Rachael sent me a text simply saying she heard...

"your granps has warehouses full of pot."  

"Oh, really?  Can you send me an article or link?"    I asked.

"No, I was just having lunch with someone whose brother is a medical grower in Washington.  He told her. "  

"Oh, and apparently he is working with Benson and Hedges and some other cigarette company." 

My jaw literally dropped.  I am only now coming down from the excitement.  You have no idea.  If Jimmy had asked me personally what to do to expand his empire...  Buying stocks is fun, but the Warren Buffet way is slow, methodical, and somewhat boring and doesn't connect with the proletariat.

Cannabis is the slam dunk industry...  and the proletariat will love you.

Buying some billionaires some time in their regions...

The biggest opportunity the next decade is to establish a major blue chip company in cannabis.

Several Blue chippers in fact!!!

The old man in the Shaw Tower is showing me something at 112 years of age that I didn't think possible...

That even the the most entrenched positions can change. 

(I had written myself off years ago...)

 People really don't have incentive to lie, but I still only have a hear-say rumor... So what do I do?
I run down to my club to confirm the rumor.  Sure enough Eric from the Green Cross of BC confirms Benson & Hedges ordered 1,000 KW bulbs to Whistler.

And then everything that has been going on the last 6 months at the Green Cross all starts to sense realizing most likely I was vaporinzing test concentrates by yours truly.

• The instant availability of top of the line concentrates from the best strains in the province at the Club.  
• The court injunction in BC allowing concentrates.  
• The attempt to make me a cannabis writer at InvestorIntel

Jimmy's in the MMJ business!!!  

Apparently some of you are upset I am not giving many  MMJ picks.

There is Abattis Bioceuticals ATTBF or ATT.C... Remember that one?  I only promoted the company in 2012.    Even my rolled back 5:1 options are worth a pretty penny today.

There is Enertopia ENRT or TOP.C... not as good as Abattis but a decent BC company.

My newest Canadian addition is Satori Resources BUD.V and has the best chance for further appreciation hiring a Canadian fund manager with expertise in MMJ this week.  If BUD cuts a track like ENRT or ATTBF... BUD could easily fly to $0.60 over the next few weeks. 

NEW RULES MAKES CANADA THE WILD WILD WEST OF CANNABIS

What most have to understand that as of next week the court injunction comes down allowing medical users to continue growing.   This court decision is essential in making the Canadian investing scene 'ethical'.   It also makes the medical marijuana industry in Canada a literal Free-For-All while proper rules are made that are fair and equitable to everyone.  For cannabis... Laissez Faire economics should be the way to go and provide legislation as we go... it is harmless and people shouold be allowed to go full bore into something that has been restiricted for nearly a century.  The court case is expected to last into 2016 creating an environment for companies and patients to thrive, experiment and provide insight and direction on where regulations should go.  

For the next two years... Canada has a Libertarian Marijuana Market.   And then we see what happens at the election.  This is the best way for everyone to play catchup and allows companies like Benson annd Hedges to get ahead of the game without govt restriction.

The FEDS have a fucked up the rules so badly... they have created a Wild Wild West environment for medical marijuana with Jimmy leading the charge out west.  The current medical marijuana market in Canada can only be described as chaotic .. proof is Jimmy and Benson and Hedges...

Do you see them on Health Canada's list of approved suppliers?



Christopher Skidmore

Beat the Market Marijuana Stocks

The Cannabis Industry

The Cannabis Industry: A Trillion Dollar Market in the Making
 

Are you still in denial cannabis prohibition is ending?   

Legalization in Colorado, Washington, and Uruguay haven’t convinced you?  How about the flood of investment into the cannabis sector or the subsequent pop in marijuana stocks?   You are still not convinced?   How about the US Federal Government recently outlining new rules for the financial sector legitimizing the business of legal marijuana.   Or how about the high profile career moves by former Microsoft exec Jamen Shively and ex-DEA agent Patrick Moen to a marijuana investment firm?  Like it or not, the flood gates in cannabis have been opened upon North American society.  Still, the biggest argument for ending of prohibition is the massive market itself, the multi-billion dollar cannabis industry which exists and thrives in spite of prohibition and 40 years of the Drug War.  When you peel back the layers of the onion on the cannabis sector you find not one industry, but three very lucrative double digit high growth industries; hemp, medical marijuana, and recreational marijuana.

Hemp agriculture has the potential to be the biggest of the 3 cannabis market segments.   It is the smallest at $500M, but hemp provides healthier alternative food staples, hemp is resilient in textiles and clothing, and biodiesel produced from hemp could significantly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.   HEMP is one of the fastest growing cannabis segments.  So much so that demand for hemp products from Americans has, Cylab, a Chinese Hemp grower, relocating its operations to Canada to more readily supply the US market.   Stemia, another Chinese hemp company is also looking to follow suit.   Hemp is one of the most versatile plants on the planet with close to 25,000 known uses.  If hemp enters into society in any meaningful way; hemp agriculture and the products made from hemp could eventually rival that of the recreational and medical marijuana industry segments.

Hemp agriculture may be big part of America’s future; the opportunity now is in the medical marijuana (MMJ) sector.  Like Hemp will help kick start a revolution in nutritional health and clean energy, MMJ is kick-starting a revolution in modern science and medicine surrounding cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system.  Colorado MMJ sales hit $329M in fiscal 2013, up 50% from the prior year.  Colorado has a population of 5.2 million people.   If you average those numbers across the US population, the MMJ market has the potential to reach $20B with widespread MMJ legalization in the US.  

The $20B MMJ market is just raw medical marijuana sales and does not include pharmaceutical companies developing cannabinoid based drugs.   Developing a novel cannabinoid based drug that works on modern health epidemics is where the ‘Holy Grail’ in cannabis medicine lies.   MMJ works and many proponents say all you need is medical marijuana.  Science tends to have a way of tweaking nature to make it work even better.   Eventually most cannabinoid products will be produced by drug companies like GW Pharmaceuticals GWPH.  One of the most promising revelations in the last 5 years is that two of the biggest health epidemics of the 21^st century, the $125B cancer and $120B diabetes epidemics could be made manageable with cannabinoid therapy.

The granddaddy of cannabis is recreational marijuana.  Colorado legal recreational cannabis sales are projected between $600 and $700 million in the first year of legalization and expected to bring in tax revenue close to $70M.  These stats blow away even the most aggressive estimates drastically underestimating the popularity of recreational pot.  Colorado recreational marijuana sales indicate a potential market size in the US of $40 to $45B with widespread legalization in the US.  If Barak Obama declassified marijuana as a schedule 1 drug tomorrow. The USA would have created a $60B market overnight.   This is ultimately why you can’t stop legalization, the market is already there.

Hemp was one of the most commonly traded commodities in the 19^th century.  You couldn’t run a country without it.  In fact, The Declaration of Independence was signed on hemp.    Cannabinoid medicine has the potential to dominate the medical landscape over the next 10 to 20 years with diabetes and cancer at the forefront of cannabinoid medicine.  This is a combined $250B market.   Recreational pot is another massive half a trillion market potential across the globe as prohibition ends.  Between hemp, medical marijuana, and recreational pot; the cannabis industry’s future looks bright with not one but three high growth sectors promising to return cannabis once again to global prominence.


Christopher Skidmore

Beat the Market Stock Picks