Lp,s are doomed!
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Canopy Growth’s painful decline
As a Canadian, I’ve been reading bad news about Canopy Growth for a long time.
Bad news in cannabis isn’t unique to Canada – MedMen’s recent cash flow problems, for example, are part of a similarly painful story of decline.
But in the early days, Canopy represented the possibilities of legal cannabis: economic growth in small, hurtin’ towns and mainstream appeal that broke free of stoner stereotypes – all driven by a blend of accomplished CPG execs and drug policy activists.
So the latest news, unsurprising as it is, was terrible: 800 layoffs, the closure of its flagship facility and a new “transformation” strategy designed to make the company profitable.
The company is also accelerating its plans in the US, where a lot of the same headwinds – high taxes and the illicit market, for example – exist as well. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the next chapter of the story.
Home / Legal
Virginia adult-use marijuana launch in jeopardy as Republicans kill retail bill
By Bonno
February 15, 2023
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Women, minority execs show few gains in U.S. cannabis industry, according to the latest data from the MJBiz Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Report. Get your copy here.
Virginia’s planned Jan. 1, 2024, start date for legal adult-use marijuana sales is in question after a regulatory bill was killed in a Republican-controlled state General Assembly committee.
The state in 2021 became the first in the South to legalize adult-use cannabis.
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The legalization measure, signed into law by then-Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, called for sales to begin no later than Jan. 1, 2024.
But the legislation left the task of figuring out key regulatory details to state lawmakers – who, to date, have not done so.
Since then, Republicans have taken control of the governor’s office as well as the House of Delegates, the state legislature’s lower body.
Partisan squabbling similar to the party-line deadlock that’s delayed legalization in other states, including Minnesota and Pennsylvania, has for the second year in a row blocked legislation necessary to allow retail sales to begin in Virginia, the Associated Press reported.
The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Adam Ebbin, a Democrat, was killed this week by the same Republican-controlled House committee that earlier defeated a measure that would have directed a state agency to draft adult-use retail regulations.
The setback “was entirely expected, but is still disappointing,” JM Pedini, NORML’s development director, said in a statement.
Virginians still are permitted by the state to possess marijuana and grow up to four plants at home, but they have nowhere to buy cannabis products outside the state’s limited medical marijuana program.
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State law allows up to five companies to cultivate and sell medical marijuana, though the issuance of the fifth license is on hold pending a lawsuit.
Virginia’ new governor, Glenn Youngkin, has opposed implementation bills, saying his focus is regulating products containing intoxicating hemp-derived
Home / Cultivation
Canadian wholesale cannabis prices are off more than 40% in 2022
author profile pictureBy Matt Lamers, International Editor
February 15, 2023 - Updated February 15, 2023
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Learn expert tips on planning and sourcing quality lighting systems for your indoor cannabis grow in the just-released MJBizDaily Lighting Buyers Guide. Get your free copy here.
Image of Canadian cannabis
Canadian cannabis wholesale prices tumbled more than 40% last year as companies continued to work through stubborn supply gluts and struggling cultivators chose to sell off their unsold marijuana instead of destroying it.
Looking at the latter part of 2023, some industry experts see the oversupply of wholesale cannabis easing somewhat as more licensed producers leave the market and the remaining cultivators adjust growing volumes to match demand.
But others are more bearish and foresee wholesale prices continuing to fall.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Oversupply and excess capacity have resulted in high-quality flower being widely available and sold well below the marginal cost of production,” Zach George, the CEO of cannabis producer SNDL, said in a news release this week.
Citing industrywide overproduction, the release noted that SNDL is eliminating about 85 employees and scaling back activity at a production facility in Olds, Alberta.
MJBizDaily previously reported that the total amount of stored cannabis by licensed producers, wholesalers and retailers had reached 1.4 billion grams (1,543 tons), citing the latest Health Canada data.
Prices of bulk wholesale flower fell to record lows in 2022 on the Canadian Cannabis Exchange (CCX), a live trading platform for B2B wholesale marijuana, according to the company’s annual Bulk Wholesale Cannabis Pricing Report.
Prices on the exchange, which is privately held, are considered a barometer for wholesale prices in Canada and do not reflect prices for all wholesale transactions in the country.
Canada isn’t alone. Wholesale prices have been falling across the United States because of a glut of product.
In Canada, the average price per gram for bulk wholesale flower in 2022 was 1.06 Canadian dollars (79 cents) a gram on the CCX, representing a decrease of 41% compared to 2021, which saw an average price of CA$1.80 a gram.
“The big takeaway here is that 2022 was a super challenging year for Canadian cannabis,” Steve Clark, the CCX’s chief executive officer, said in a phone interview.
“We started seeing in the back half of the year a lot of consolidation, a lot of small to midsize cultivators essentially started to run out of free cash flow or lines of credit.”
Clark said that was one of the factors driving prices lower.
“People were almost jumping over each other as the offer prices came down, just to move product that had been sitting in the vault,” he said.
“That, paired with a number of larger producers needing to get capital at quarter end and year end, really became that perfect storm where it’s really a race to the bottom.”
Other factors for falling wholesale prices cited in the CCX report include:
Overbuilt infrastructure leading to oversupply.
High taxes, which squeezed wholesale prices.
Lower retail prices, which put downward pressure on wholesale prices.
“Companies that overproduced were forced to drop prices of aged product and CCX saw this throughout early 2022 as larger lots were liquidated, including aged stale flower and sizable volumes of popcorn bud and smalls that did not sell in 2021,” the report noted. LP,s offering is not what customer want.
Higher THC, lower volatility
The Canadian Cannabis Exchange facilitates transactions for six indices based on THC content.
Generally, flower with lower THC bunk content experienced wholesale price declines on average last year.
For example, flower with THC scores in the 15%-20% range, or what CCX calls “Index 3,” traded at a weighted average price of CA$0.29 a gram last year, approximately 62% lower than in 2021.
“Heading into early 2023, do not expect Index 3 price levels to recover materially, as a robust supply of higher-potency flower will continue to weigh on the market,” according to the CCX report and all the money going grey market.
“Index 3 is trending towards extraction grade and converging with trim pricing.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Flower with THC scores in the 20%-25% (Index 4) and 25%-30% (Index 5) ranges also saw substantial declines in average prices.
Index 4 traded at an average price of CA$1 a gram in 2022, while Index 5 was CA$1.56 a gram, representing declines of almost 50% for both categories compared to 2021.
Erin Butler, vice president of corporate development for the CCX, said “there’s an immense amount of volume in that 20%-25%, so the competition for sellers is really, really tight right now.”
The report said flower with 30%-plus THC was more stable than other dried flower indices, finishing 2022 between CA$1.95 a gram and CA$2.12 a gram in four out of the five months it was published.
In 2022, the CCX did just over 45,000 kilograms of flower and trim deals in around 900 transactions.
‘Vault liquidations’
Dan Sutton, CEO of British Columbia-headquartered cannabis producer Tantalus Labs, expects prices will continue to fall.
“What we’re anticipating is further gluts of supply that drive prices down even further,” he said in a phone interview.
“There was some notion that perhaps we’d find the price floor. The problem with average prices in the wholesale market around a dollar for 20%-22% cannabis is that it is way below production costs for your average craft-scale producer.
“For the next few years, these vault liquidations will persist, and that will pull prices down, in my view.”
Sutton cited the increasing number of cannabis producers as one of the factors driving down prices.
He said general wholesale market trends, such as falling overall prices, do affect the price of higher-quality flower sold by craft producers.
“The reality is, prices are always reflective of other quality grades,” he said.
“So if I have a better-quality product than commodity grade, and commodity prices have come down 40%, it pulls on my own pricing.”
A number of cannabis producers called it quits in 2022, such as Zenabis Global and Eve & Co.
“We’re seeing artificially deflated prices from these liquidation events, and that is going to challenge other wholesalers who are building a business in the wholesale market,” Sutton said.
Fourteen of the 35 Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) filings in Canada – or 40% – between Jan. 1 and Dec. 22 of last year involved cannabis companies.
“For craft cultivators and small (cannabis) businesses, the time is now to be as lean as you possibly can,” Sutton said.
“Survival is victory. That’s been true the last couple of years and it will be true in 2023.”
‘Follow the leader’
CEO Clark said THC remains the main barometer for price, but terpene profiles are becoming more sought after by buyers.
Clark suggested it’s important for cultivators to try to stay ahead of trends.
“It’s not always following what everybody else is doing, but staying ahead of trends and trying to find a unique terpene and cannabinoid profile,” he said.
“In the Canadian market, it’s a little bit of ‘follow the leader.’ The leader being the grey market. There’s a popular strain, a couple guys grow it, and then we’d see more entries starting to grow that (cultivar) four to six months later.”
Clark said growers need to find unique cultivars with more than 25% THC or risk not being picked up by companies’ respective distribution channels. Martha stays on shelves. Newbies don,t purchase much.
Clark and Butler said buyers are emerging for forward lots, for delivery later this year, in the 25%-and-up categories.
“They’re looking to lock up good growers now at a slightly above-market price,” Clark said.
“They’re starting to realize that with a lot of these larger cultivators shutting down facilities, consolidation and closures of some of the micros, and there’s a lot of demand for the high-quality flower legacy is pumping out.
Matt Lamers ??
@matt_lamers
·
1h
.
@Cannabis_Canada
's
@G_Smitherman
is in Ottawa today with several CEOs to press the ???? gov't for excise and regulatory fee relief.
Data seems to back them up: Total duty collected in Canada on cannabis 2018-2021 was $862.3 million, amid no private sector profits
DOOMED
How cutthroat is the cannabis cultivation industry in Canada?
As of September 2022, a total of 259 ???? cannabis licensees were required to remit excise duty to the federal gov't.
Only 87 of them did not have an excise debt (meaning they paid the taxman on time and in full).
No money no candy.
Good luck with that.
Even counting naive investor diluting the stock with massive amount of $
you still can make a buck after all these years.
Stock market bunk weed is selling well under production cost.
Why?
Grey market has fire for 1$/gram.
You cannot compete.
Doomed!1
Anytime, any day, no surprise, they run a tight ship!
Stop dreaming and admit that stock market bunk weed is a bust.
Best to invest in grey market.
That is where the money is.
Home / Cultivation
Canadian wholesale cannabis prices are off more than 40% in 2022
author profile pictureBy Matt Lamers, International Editor
To bonno
February 15, 2023
SHARE
Learn expert tips on planning and sourcing quality lighting systems for your indoor cannabis grow in the just-released MJBizDaily Lighting Buyers Guide. Get your free copy here.
Image of Canadian cannabis
Canadian cannabis wholesale prices tumbled more than 40% last year as companies continued to work through stubborn supply gluts and struggling cultivators chose to sell off their unsold marijuana instead of destroying it.
Looking at the latter part of 2023, some industry experts see the oversupply of wholesale cannabis easing somewhat as more licensed producers leave the market and the remaining cultivators adjust growing volumes to match demand.
But others are more bearish and foresee wholesale prices continuing to fall.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Oversupply and excess capacity have resulted in high-quality flower being widely available and sold well below the marginal cost of production,” Zach George, the CEO of cannabis producer SNDL, said in a news release this week.
Citing industrywide overproduction, the release noted that SNDL is eliminating about 85 employees and scaling back activity at a production facility in Olds, Alberta.
MJBizDaily previously reported that the total amount of stored cannabis by licensed producers, wholesalers and retailers had reached 1.4 billion grams (1,543 tons), citing the latest Health Canada data.
Prices of bulk wholesale flower fell to record lows in 2022 on the Canadian Cannabis Exchange (CCX), a live trading platform for B2B wholesale marijuana, according to the company’s annual Bulk Wholesale Cannabis Pricing Report.
Prices on the exchange, which is privately held, are considered a barometer for wholesale prices in Canada and do not reflect prices for all wholesale transactions in the country.
Canada isn’t alone. Wholesale prices have been falling across the United States because of a glut of product.
In Canada, the average price per gram for bulk wholesale flower in 2022 was 1.06 Canadian dollars (79 cents) a gram on the CCX, representing a decrease of 41% compared to 2021, which saw an average price of CA$1.80 a gram.
“The big takeaway here is that 2022 was a super challenging year for Canadian cannabis,” Steve Clark, the CCX’s chief executive officer, said in a phone interview.
“We started seeing in the back half of the year a lot of consolidation, a lot of small to midsize cultivators essentially started to run out of free cash flow or lines of credit.”
Clark said that was one of the factors driving prices lower.
“People were almost jumping over each other as the offer prices came down, just to move product that had been sitting in the vault,” he said.
“That, paired with a number of larger producers needing to get capital at quarter end and year end, really became that perfect storm where it’s really a race to the bottom.”
Other factors for falling wholesale prices cited in the CCX report include:
Overbuilt infrastructure leading to oversupply.
High taxes, which squeezed wholesale prices.
Lower retail prices, which put downward pressure on wholesale prices.
“Companies that overproduced were forced to drop prices of aged product and CCX saw this throughout early 2022 as larger lots were liquidated, including aged flower and sizable volumes of popcorn bud and smalls that did not sell in 2021,” the report noted.
Higher THC, lower volatility
The Canadian Cannabis Exchange facilitates transactions for six indices based on THC content.
Generally, flower with lower THC content experienced wholesale price declines on average last year.
For example, flower with THC scores in the 15%-20% range, or what CCX calls “Index 3,” traded at a weighted average price of CA$0.29 a gram last year, approximately 62% lower than in 2021.
“Heading into early 2023, do not expect Index 3 price levels to recover materially, as a robust supply of higher-potency flower will continue to weigh on the market,” according to the CCX report.
“Index 3 is trending towards extraction grade and converging with trim pricing.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Flower with THC scores in the 20%-25% (Index 4) and 25%-30% (Index 5) ranges also saw substantial declines in average prices.
Index 4 traded at an average price of CA$1 a gram in 2022, while Index 5 was CA$1.56 a gram, representing declines of almost 50% for both categories compared to 2021.
Erin Butler, vice president of corporate development for the CCX, said “there’s an immense amount of volume in that 20%-25%, so the competition for sellers is really, really tight right now.”
The report said flower with 30%-plus THC was more stable than other dried flower indices, finishing 2022 between CA$1.95 a gram and CA$2.12 a gram in four out of the five months it was published.
In 2022, the CCX did just over 45,000 kilograms of flower and trim deals in around 900 transactions.
‘Vault liquidations’
Dan Sutton, CEO of British Columbia-headquartered cannabis producer Tantalus Labs, expects prices will continue to fall.
“What we’re anticipating is further gluts of supply that drive prices down even further,” he said in a phone interview.
“There was some notion that perhaps we’d find the price floor. The problem with average prices in the wholesale market around a dollar for 20%-22% cannabis is that it is way below production costs for your average craft-scale producer.
“For the next six months, these vault liquidations will persist, and that will pull prices down, in my view.”
Sutton cited the increasing number of cannabis producers as one of the factors driving down prices.
He said general wholesale market trends, such as falling overall prices, do affect the price of higher-quality flower sold by craft producers.
“The reality is, prices are always reflective of other quality grades,” he said.
“So if I have a better-quality product than commodity grade, and commodity prices have come down 40%, it pulls on my own pricing.”
A number of cannabis producers called it quits in 2022, such as Zenabis Global and Eve & Co.
“We’re seeing artificially deflated prices from these liquidation events, and that is going to challenge other wholesalers who are building a business in the wholesale market,” Sutton said.
Fourteen of the 35 Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) filings in Canada – or 40% – between Jan. 1 and Dec. 22 of last year involved cannabis companies.
“For craft cultivators and small (cannabis) businesses, the time is now to be as lean as you possibly can,” Sutton said.
“Survival is victory. That’s been true the last couple of years and it will be true in 2023.”
‘Follow the leader’
CEO Clark said THC remains the main barometer for price, but terpene profiles are becoming more sought after by buyers.
Clark suggested it’s important for cultivators to try to stay ahead of trends.
“It’s not always following what everybody else is doing, but staying ahead of trends and trying to find a unique terpene and cannabinoid profile,” he said.
“In the Canadian market, it’s a little bit of ‘follow the leader.’ There’s a popular strain, a couple guys grow it, and then we’d see more entries starting to grow that (cultivar) four to six months later.”
Clark said growers need to find unique cultivars with more than 25% THC or risk not being picked up by companies’ respective distribution channels.
Clark and Butler said buyers are emerging for forward lots, for delivery later this year, in the 25%-and-up categories.
“They’re looking to lock up good growers now at a slightly above-market price,” Clark said.
“They’re starting to realize that with a lot of these larger cultivators shutting down facilities, consolidation and closures of some of the micros, and there’s a lot of demand for high-quality flower.”
Matt Lamers ??
@matt_lamers
·
15-02-2023
8:41
Almost 1,000 cannabis industry layoffs have been announced so far this year in Canada.
Aleafia Health and SNDL are the latest to trim staff in a bid to cut cost.
Dude!
You take your clues from politicians?
Plenty of suckers around weed who have no clue…;)
??
Meanwhile dilution is the word
No end in sight
Yup!
I made IT a long a time ago..:)
Driving in style?
So you are saying that cannabis has a bright future???
SQDC was cleaned out of all their products In one of their store lately
That proves that there is a demand for bunk weed
Bandits went through the roof while everyone was asleep
The police is on the case
You don,t understand…
You have missed the cannabis train.
Corporate weed is a bust.
World cannabis market is oversaturated.
You just don,t know it yet.
You will learn in time.
Time to load up!
www.headz.ca and tons of others
besides… USA canna oversaturate market is worse than Canada…
As of today, corporate weed sells for less than production cost.
Legacy is pumping out onces at 28$ and pounds for 400$.
How many pounds?
Would you like today,s delivery?
Doomed!
You are right : Legacy 1$/gram cannabis is extremely popular!
Corporate weed is a bust.
CEO cannot compete!
www.headz.ca for more.
You want to drown the black market?
Grow better weed.
Tom Yun
Tom Yun
CTVNews.ca writer
Follow | Contact
Updated Feb. 10, 2023 3:28 p.m. EST
Published Feb. 9, 2023 10:54 p.m. EST
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On Thursday, Canopy Growth Corp., one of Canada's largest cannabis producers, announced that it would be laying off 800 workers, impacting 35 per cent of its workforce, and closing one of its facilities in Smiths Falls, Ont.
It's the latest round of layoffs for an industry that has shown signs of struggling in recent months, four-and-a-half years after legalization. In the backdrop of all this, experts say high excise taxes and stiff competition from unlicensed sellers have made it difficult for legal growers to do business.
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George Smitherman, president of the Cannabis Council of Canada (C3), says he wants to see Ottawa level the playing field for legal growers while ramping up enforcement actions against the illicit market.
"If you're willing to be regulated and put up your hand, fill out all the forms and pay all the fees, everybody's got time attention and more fees and taxes for you. And just on the other side of the line, if you care not to do any of that, almost nobody cares," Smitherman told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Thursday.
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Federal government to announce review of Cannabis Act as legal industry faces big hurdles
For example, legal sellers have to adhere to strict TCH limits when it comes to edibles, but Smitherman says they're too stringent, which allows the illicit market to dominate the category.
"We have a amazing array of offerings there, but it doesn't match up with where the cannabis consumer is in that category. So they're all in the illicit market," he said.
It's unclear exactly how much of the cannabis market share is taken up by illicit sellers nationwide, but according to last year's annual report from the Ontario Cannabis Store, illicit cannabis made up 43 per cent of the market in the province. In addition, Health Canada's 2022 Canadian Cannabis Survey found that 33 per cent of cannabis users still buy from illicit sources, at least occasionally.
On an earnings call on Thursday, Canopy Growth CEO David Klein also placed the blame for the company's struggles on the illicit market.
"The competition with the illicit market, compounded by an overbuilt legal cannabis industry, has caused price compression across the board. We expect the sector challenges to remain for years to come. And as a result, the sustainability of this legal sector is in question," Klein told investors.
Smitherman has also taken aim at the federal government's excise taxes on cannabis. In 2017, prior to legalization, Ottawa had signalled that the taxes would be $1 a gram for a $10 a gram cannabis product.
"You can see the proportion of this whole excise tax, and it's way out of whack," he said. "Our preference would be to go back … 10 per cent excise on products across the board,"
Cannabis industry expert and Toronto Metropolitan University lecturer Brad Poulos agrees.
"This is not the time to be taxing cannabis into oblivion. Get greedy later. Don't do it now," he told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Thursday. "Let's let the legal industry thrive before you start to tax it into oblivion."
But while Poulos also wants to see reforms that ease the tax burden for legal growers and make it easier for them to compete against the illicit market, he believes Canopy Growth's struggles are largely due to them expanding their production facilities too quickly.
"I don't buy (Klein's) argument because, like it or not, the industry has grown in the past year and they shrunk," he said. "It's disingenuous for them to just throw this on the government and just say it's all the government's fault.
Back in September, the federal government announced that it would undertake a review of the country's Cannabis Act. Smitherman hopes the review can give his industry more exposure around these issues, but notes that it could take years before any reforms come out of it, given the slow pace of Parliament
"We'll try to use it for all that we can to help to emphasize some of these urgent actions and hopefully, you know, maybe proactively develop some consensus around them," he said.
Meanwhile, Poulos believes the excise tax isn't going anywhere anytime soon, even after the federal review.
"I don't think the government will be able to wean themselves off the tax as much as everybody in the industry is pushing and screaming about it. They have not done anything to indicate that they're going to make a change," he said.
Farmers farming
Let's talk about Canopy's gov't subsidies.
Canopy reached into taxpayers pockets for over $65 million in pandemic subsidies to "retain & rehire" staff
Workforce in 2020: 4,434 (3,374 in ????)
March 2022: 3,151 employees (2,174 in ????)
Gone: 1,283 people
?? #cdnpoli
@MJBizDaily
Klein is Golden as long as more suckers join in the Ponzi.
Keep the faith.
We are transforming our Canadian business to an asset-light model: Klein
Canopy Growth Corp will lay off 800 employees as part of a restructuring plan that includes closing the iconic Hershey Facility in Smith Falls, Ontario.
The layoffs will impact over 50 percent of its workforce and take place over the next few months.
David Klein, Canopy Growth’s chief executive, said in a statement to the press: “We are transforming our Canadian business to an asset-light model and significantly reducing the overall size of our organization. These changes are difficult but necessary to drive our business to profitability and growth.”
“An asset-light model” is precisely what many of us in this space have been predicting. As I wrote five years ago, Canopy would eventually pull out for all the same reasons Hershey Chocolate did.
THE RISE AND FALL OF CANOPY & ITS HERSHEY BUILDING
Canopy to close Hershey Facility
On Thursday, Canopy reported a net loss of $266.7 million or 54 cents per diluted share for the last quarter of 2022. Net revenue for the third quarter of the company’s financial year totalled $101.2 million, down from $141.0 million a year earlier.
And, of course, as has been the case since its inception – Canopy is cash-flow negative.
Canopy blamed non-cash fair value changes and increased asset impairment and restructuring costs for its more considerable losses. But the truth is, accounting gimmicks that worked in the 2010s are no longer working.
With a recession looming, investors are looking at hard data. Namely, free cash flow. As I pointed out four years ago, Canopy’s cash flow from operating activities is negative and always has been.
In other words, shareholders have been subsidizing the company’s customers, which explains Canopy’s Chief Financial Officer’s statement to the press.
“The right-sizing of our Canadian business is expected to significantly reduce our cash costs. Canopy is firmly on the path to deliver at least quarterly breakeven adjusted EBITDA in our Canadian cannabis business in Fiscal 2024, even at current revenue run-rate.”
EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. It is a financial metric that measures a company’s operating performance by excluding the impact of certain expenses, such as interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Calculating EBITDA provides a more accurate picture of a company’s operating cash flow.
BUT SMITH FALLS IS THE POT CAPITAL OF CANADA!
Canopy to Close Hershey Facility
Once upon a time, the corporate press beat the drum that Canada’s legal cannabis producers would be world-renowned. That Smith Falls, of all places, would become the pot capital of Canada.
Canopy acquired the old Hershey Chocolate facility in late 2016. They paid $6.6 million for the 42-acre property.
“Increasing the scale of our cannabis production capacity is vitally important to our operations,” said former CEO Bruce Linton.
Even the mayor of Smith Falls drank the kool-aid. He once said: “We believe Smiths Falls is the first community in Canada to develop a Cannabis Tourism Strategy. This is an important step in solidifying our role as a leader.”
“It was always our dream to bring tourists back to Smiths Falls, and to pay homage to the history and heritage of the town,” said another former Canopy CEO, Mark Zekulin.
But then reality came crashing down. And for those of us not buying the propaganda, none of this has been a surprise. Right now, there is no global cannabis economy. For the time being, Canopy will source from grow facilities in Kelowna, British Columbia.
But what incentive do they have to stay in B.C.? Imagine a North American legal cannabis market that is part of NAFTA.
That means Mexico, with its ideal climate, tax incentives, lower labour costs, and operating costs, would become the source of cannabis cultivation.
Smith Falls was never going to be the pot capital of Canada.
Nowhere where the daily average temperatures hit -15 °C will ever become a centre of cannabis cultivation.
FOOTNOTE(S)
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canopy-growth-reports-third-quarter-fiscal-year-2023-financial-results-and-announces-canadian-business-transformation-plan-873174179.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cannabis-tourism-smiths-fall-1.5294290
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canopy-growth-triples-tweeds-production-potential-by-acquiring-1-hershey-drive-610814575.html
Crappy Growth to close down Smith Falls facility and sacking 800 employees.
WHO’s you Dady IV?
Coke & Walmart have no interest in a stock market Ponzi.
They are there to make money.
Tilray is doomed and they know it.
Nov 17 2022
Jeffrey Galvin
Global consumption of marijuana is increasing, but there is a paucity of evidence concerning associated lung imaging findings.
Purpose
To use chest CT to investigate the effects of marijuana smoking in the lung.
Materials and Methods
This retrospective case-control study evaluated results of chest CT examinations (from October 2005 to July 2020) in marijuana smokers, nonsmoker control patients, and tobacco-only smokers. We compared rates of emphysema, airway changes, gynecomastia, and coronary artery calcification. Age- and sex-matched subgroups were created for comparison with tobacco-only smokers older than 50 years. Results were analyzed using ?2 tests.
Results
A total of 56 marijuana smokers (34 male; mean age, 49 years ± 14 [SD]), 57 nonsmoker control patients (32 male; mean age, 49 years ± 14), and 33 tobacco-only smokers (18 male; mean age, 60 years ± 6) were evaluated. Higher rates of emphysema were seen among marijuana smokers (42 of 56 [75%]) than nonsmokers (three of 57 [5%]) (P < .001) but not tobacco-only smokers (22 of 33 [67%]) (P = .40). Rates of bronchial thickening, bronchiectasis, and mucoid impaction were higher among marijuana smokers compared with the other groups (P < .001 to P = .04). Gynecomastia was more common in marijuana smokers (13 of 34 [38%]) than in control patients (five of 32 [16%]) (P = .039) and tobacco-only smokers (two of 18 [11%]) (P = .040). In age-matched subgroup analysis of 30 marijuana smokers (23 male), 29 nonsmoker control patients (17 male), and 33 tobacco-only smokers (18 male), rates of bronchial thickening, bronchiectasis, and mucoid impaction were again higher in the marijuana smokers than in the tobacco-only smokers (P < .001 to P = .006). Emphysema rates were higher in age-matched marijuana smokers (28 of 30 [93%]) than in tobacco-only smokers (22 of 33 [67%]) (P = .009). There was no difference in rate of coronary artery calcification between age-matched marijuana smokers (21 of 30 [70%]) and tobacco-only smokers (28 of 33 [85%]) (P = .16).
Conclusion
Airway inflammation and emphysema were more common in marijuana smokers than in nonsmokers and tobacco-only smokers, although variable interobserver agreement and concomitant cigarette smoking among the marijuana-smoking cohort limits our ability to draw strong conclusions.
© RSNA, 2022
See also the editorial by Galvin and Franks in this issue.
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Summary
In this case-control study of marijuana smokers, nonsmokers, and tobacco-only smokers, smoking marijuana was associated with paraseptal emphysema, bronchiectasis, bronchial wall thickening, and airway mucoid impaction.
Key Results
¦ In this retrospective case-control study analyzing chest CT findings in 56 marijuana smokers, 57 nonsmokers, and 33 tobacco-only smokers, marijuana smokers had higher rates of airway changes than did tobacco-only smokers or nonsmokers (P < .001 to P = .04).
¦ Emphysema was more common in marijuana smokers than in nonsmokers (75% vs 5%, P < .001) and in age- and sex-matched marijuana smokers than in tobacco-only smokers (93% vs 67%, P = .009); the paraseptal subtype of emphysema was predominant in marijuana smokers.
Introduction
Marijuana is the most widely used illicit psychoactive substance in the world (1) and the second-most commonly smoked substance after tobacco (2). Its use has increased in Canada since the legalization of nonmedical marijuana in 2018. In 2020, 20% of the population in Canada aged at least 15 years reported having used marijuana in the previous 3 months compared with 14% of the population before marijuana legalization (3). In the United States, the percentage of all adults reporting marijuana use within the previous year rose from 6.7% in 2005 to 12.9% in 2015 (4).
Marijuana is consumed via multiple routes, including smoking, vaporizing, and eating, with inhaled methods being the most common (5). It may be smoked by itself or mixed with tobacco. It is usually smoked without a filter, and users inhale larger volumes with a longer breath hold compared with tobacco smokers (6). For measures of airflow obstruction, one marijuana joint can produce an effect similar to that of 2.5–5.0 tobacco cigarettes (7). Marijuana smoke contains known carcinogens and other chemicals associated with respiratory diseases (8).
Numerous studies have focused on the relationship of marijuana to pulmonary function tests, symptoms, and lung cancer. Two recent systematic reviews (2,9) determined that heavy marijuana use can lead to respiratory symptoms similar to those in tobacco smokers, including cough, sputum production, and wheeze. These are likely related to inflammation of the tracheobronchial mucosa (10) and mucus hypersecretion (11). One study posits that although marijuana causes bronchitis in current users, it does not lead to irreversible airway damage (6). The relationship of marijuana use to pulmonary function test results and lung cancer occurrence is described as equivocal, and both review studies comment on the possibility of the bronchodilatory effect of chronic marijuana smoking leading to a long-term increase in forced vital capacity, a trend also observed in a large population-based cohort study (12). Pulmonary function tests also indicate central airway inflammation in marijuana smokers (6).
To our knowledge, only two previous studies (7,13) have evaluated lung imaging findings in marijuana smokers and neither could establish a clear association between marijuana smoking and emphysema. Other studies investigating this relationship have been case reports and small case series, with little ability to draw clinically relevant conclusions. Other possible lung imaging findings associated with marijuana smoking, such as bronchiectasis, have not been studied.
The purpose of this study was to use chest CT to investigate the effects of marijuana smoking on the lung. We sought to determine if there were identifiable sequelae on chest CT images, including emphysema and signs of airway inflammation.
Materials and Methods
Patients
This retrospective case-control study was performed with approval and waiver of informed consent from the local institutional review board. We included chest CT studies obtained prior to November 2020 at The Ottawa Hospital, a tertiary care center, and its affiliate hospitals. Patients were assigned to one of the following three groups: marijuana smokers, nonsmoker control patients, or tobacco-only smokers.
Marijuana smokers.—Cases were identified by searching for the terms marijuana and cannabis in The Ottawa Hospital picture archiving and communications system, and results were filtered to include only those in which chest CT was performed. Charts were reviewed to assess the frequency and duration of marijuana use, as well as for concomitant tobacco use. A total of 56 marijuana smokers were identified with chest CT performed between October 2005 and July 2020. Patient ages were sorted into 5-year age blocks (15–19 years, 20–24 years, 25–30 years, etc), and the number of men and women in each age category was determined. Marijuana consumption was quantified using the conversion of 0.32 g of marijuana per joint, as described by Ridgeway et al (14).
Nonsmoker control patients.—The pool of control patients was identified by searching for the phrase sarcoma initial staging in The Ottawa Hospital picture archiving and communications system. Initial staging chest CT of patients with newly diagnosed sarcoma and without history of smoking, lung disease, or chemotherapy was chosen. Patient charts were reviewed for use of marijuana or tobacco. In the case of marijuana smokers, the patient was excluded from the nonsmoker control group and added to the marijuana smoker group. New control patients were then selected. If the patient smoked only tobacco, he or she was not included in the nonsmoker control group. Fifty-seven control patients were identified with chest CT performed between April 2010 and October 2019. Control subjects were sorted into 5-year age blocks, and an appropriate age- and sex-matched subgroup was created.
Tobacco-only smokers.—The pool of tobacco-only smokers included patients with a chest CT examination performed as part of the high-risk lung cancer screening program (minimum age, 50 years; smoking history, >25 pack-years). Tobacco-only smokers were selected in a similar manner to those in the nonsmoker control group. Patient charts were reviewed for use of marijuana. If marijuana use was identified, the patient was excluded and added to the group of marijuana smokers, and a new patient was selected. Thirty-three tobacco-only smokers were identified with chest CT performed between April and June 2019.
Age- and sex-matched subgroups.—Because the tobacco smoker group included only patients aged at least 50 years, similarly aged patients in the marijuana smoker group and the nonsmoker control group were included in the subgroup analysis.
Image Analysis
Chest CT studies were obtained with different multidetector scanners with a section thickness of 2 mm or less. Intravenous iopamidol (Isovue; Bracco Imaging) was used in contrast-enhanced studies. The typical volumetric CT dose index and dose-length product for contrast-enhanced studies were 5.7 mGy and 238.5 mGy · cm, respectively. All images from chest CT studies were reviewed separately by two thoracic fellowship-trained radiologists (G.R., P.S.; 10 and 3 years of experience, respectively), who were blinded to clinical history (ie, marijuana and tobacco use) and other imaging findings. To assess interobserver variability, CT images from 30 patients (10 patients from each group) were reviewed initially. Final statistical analyses were performed on imaging findings obtained using consensus reads involving both radiologists on the entire study population of 146 patients. Lung findings assessed were (a) emphysema and (b) airway changes.
Emphysema.—The predominant pattern of emphysema (paraseptal or centrilobular) was recorded in accordance with Fleischner society descriptions (15).
Airway changes.—Bronchiectasis and bronchial wall thickening (Fig 3A) in accordance with descriptions by Ooi et al (16) and mucoid impaction presence or absence were recorded. The presence or absence of inflammatory small airway disease, in the form of centrilobular nodular opacities (15), also was recorded. Air trapping was not assessed because expiratory acquisitions were not available for all patients.
Flowchart shows patient inclusion and exclusion criteria for this study. Subgroups were created by age and sex matching to the tobacco-only cohort (who were taken from the high-risk lung cancer screening program; to qualify for screening, these patients needed to be 50 years or older). Any patients 50 years or older in the marijuana smoker or nonsmoker main groups were included in the subgroup analysis. Patients younger than 50 years in the marijuana smoker or nonsmoker main groups were excluded from subgroup analysis.
Figure 1: Flowchart shows patient inclusion and exclusion criteria for this study. Subgroups were created by age and sex matching to the tobacco-only cohort (who were taken from the high-risk lung cancer screening program; to qualify for screening, these patients needed to be 50 years or older). Any patients 50 years or older in the marijuana smoker or nonsmoker main groups were included in the subgroup analysis. Patients younger than 50 years in the marijuana smoker or nonsmoker main groups were excluded from subgroup analysis.
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Airway changes in a 66-year-old male marijuana and tobacco smoker. Contrast-enhanced (A) axial and (B) coronal CT images show cylindrical bronchiectasis and bronchial wall thickening (arrowheads) in multiple lung lobes bilaterally in a background of paraseptal (arrows) and centrilobular emphysema.
Figure 2: Airway changes in a 66-year-old male marijuana and tobacco smoker. Contrast-enhanced (A) axial and (B) coronal CT images show cylindrical bronchiectasis and bronchial wall thickening (arrowheads) in multiple lung lobes bilaterally in a background of paraseptal (arrows) and centrilobular emphysema.
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Pulmonary emphysema in (A, B) marijuana and (C, D) tobacco smokers. (A) Axial and (B) coronal CT images in a 44-year-old male marijuana smoker show paraseptal emphysema (arrowheads) in bilateral upper lobes. (C) Axial and (D) coronal CT images in a 66-year-old female tobacco smoker with centrilobular emphysema represented by areas of centrilobular lucency (arrowheads).
Figure 3: Pulmonary emphysema in (A, B) marijuana and (C, D) tobacco smokers. (A) Axial and (B) coronal CT images in a 44-year-old male marijuana smoker show paraseptal emphysema (arrowheads) in bilateral upper lobes. (C) Axial and (D) coronal CT images in a 66-year-old female tobacco smoker with centrilobular emphysema represented by areas of centrilobular lucency (arrowheads).
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Non–lung-related findings.—Gynecomastia was recorded with a cutoff dimension of 22 mm of breast tissue (17). Coronary artery calcification was evaluated using the ordinal scoring method previously used by Shemesh et al (18), and a score of 0–12 was recorded for each patient.
Statistical Analyses
Interobserver agreement was evaluated using the Cohen ? statistic. Results were analyzed using ?2 tests to assess for significant differences in rates of emphysema, bronchiectasis, bronchial wall thickening, mucoid impaction, gynecomastia, and coronary artery disease between groups of marijuana smokers, tobacco smokers, and control patients; statistical significance was set at P < .05. Marijuana smokers were compared with control subjects in the main group analysis, and they were compared with both tobacco smokers and control patients in the subgroup analysis. The ?2 tests were performed using an online statistics calculator (https://www.socscistatistics.com/).
Results
Patient Characteristics
A total of 56 marijuana smokers (mean age, 49 years ± 14 [SD]; 34 male, 22 female) and 57 control patients (mean age, 49 years ± 14; 32 male, 25 female) were identified. Patients older than 50 years were included in subgroups for comparison with those who only smoked tobacco; subgroups consisted of 30 marijuana smokers (mean age, 60 years ± 6; 23 male, seven female), 29 control patients (mean age, 61 years ± 6; 17 male, 12 female), and 33 tobacco-only smokers (mean age, 60 years ± 6; 18 male, 15 female). Patient selection criteria are summarized in Figure 1, and patient characteristics are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Patient Characteristics
Table 1:
Our ability to quantify marijuana use was limited, with a daily amount specified in only 28 of 56 patients; average marijuana consumption among these patients was 1.85 g per day (range, 0.25–9.25 g per day). There were 50 of 56 marijuana-smokers who also smoked tobacco, with pack-year data specified in only 47 patients; average smoking history was 25 pack-years (range, 0–100 pack-years) (14).
For tobacco-only smokers, average smoking history was 40 pack-years (range, 25–105 pack-years).
Interobserver Agreement
For the analysis of 30 patients, interobserver agreement between the two readers was fair for assessment of bronchiectasis (? = 0.27), moderate for assessment of bronchial wall thickening (? = 0.49), substantial for assessment of emphysema (? = 0.79), and strong for assessment of mucoid impaction (? = 0.84).
Marijuana Smokers versus Nonsmoker Controls
There were differences in rates of emphysema (both paraseptal and centrilobular) (75% vs 5%, P < .001), bronchial thickening (64% vs 11%, P < .001), bronchiectasis (23% vs 4%, P = .002), and mucoid impaction (46% vs 2%, P < .001) between marijuana smokers and nonsmoker control patients, respectively. No patient had pneumothorax.
Subgroup analysis demonstrated differences in frequency of bronchial thickening (83% vs 21%, P < .001), bronchiectasis (33% vs 7%, P = .012) and mucoid impaction (67% vs 3%, P < .001) between marijuana smokers and nonsmoker control patients, respectively.
Centrilobular nodules were observed in 18% of marijuana smokers while no nonsmoker control patients exhibited this finding (P < .001). Gynecomastia was significantly more common in marijuana smokers than in nonsmoker control patients (38% vs 16%, P = .04). While there was a difference in coronary artery calcification rates between marijuana smokers and nonsmoker control patients (43% vs 26%,), this did not reach statistical significance (P = .06).
Marijuana Smokers versus Tobacco-only Smokers
Differences in bronchial thickening (64% vs 42%, P = .04), bronchiectasis (23% vs 6%, P = .04), and mucoid impaction (46% vs 15%, P = .003) were seen in the non–age-matched marijuana group compared with the tobacco-only group. Subgroup analysis again demonstrated significant differences in rates of bronchial thickening (83% vs 42%, P < .001), bronchiectasis (33% vs 6%, P = .006), and mucoid impaction (67% vs 15%, P < .001) in marijuana smokers compared with tobacco-only smokers. Figure 2 demonstrates CT findings of airway changes in a combined marijuana and tobacco smoker. Variable interobserver agreement limits our ability to draw strong conclusions about bronchial wall thickening and bronchiectasis.
We found no difference between the overall rates of emphysema (including both paraseptal and centrilobular emphysema) when comparing non–age-matched marijuana smokers and tobacco-only smokers (75% vs 67%, P = .40); however, higher rates of emphysema were noted when the age-matched marijuana group was compared with the tobacco-only group (93% vs 67%, P = .01). Also, a significant difference in a paraseptal predominant pattern of emphysema was seen in the marijuana smokers compared with the tobacco-only smokers (57% vs 24%, P = .009) (Fig 3), while we found no evidence of a difference in the proportion of those with a centrilobular pattern (37% vs 39%, P = .82). Rates of the key CT findings in each cohort are summarized for the main group in Table 2 and for the subgroup in Table 3.
Table 2: Rates of Thoracic CT Findings among Marijuana Smokers, Nonsmoker Control Patients, and Tobacco Smokers (Main Groups)
Table 2:
Table 3: Rates of Thoracic CT Findings among Marijuana Smokers, Nonsmoker Control Patients, and Tobacco Smokers (Age- and Sex-matched Subgroups)
Table 3:
Discussion
In this era of legalization and increasing consumption of marijuana, we sought to identify the imaging features of marijuana smoking on chest CT scans. We found higher rates of emphysema among marijuana smokers (42 of 56, 75%) than among nonsmokers (three of 57, 5%) (P < .001) and among age-matched marijuana smokers (28 of 30, 93%) than among tobacco-only smokers (22 of 33, 67%) (P = .009). Paraseptal emphysema was more predominant in marijuana smokers (27 of 56, 48%) than in tobacco-only smokers (eight of 33, 24%) (P = .03) and in age-matched marijuana smokers (17 of 30, 57%) than in tobacco-only smokers (eight of 33, 24%) (P = .009). Markers of airway inflammation were higher among marijuana smokers than among other groups for both non–age-matched and age-matched subgroup comparisons (P < .001 to P = .04). Gynecomastia was more common in marijuana smokers (13 of 34, 38%) than in control patients (five of 32, 16%) (P = .039) or tobacco-only smokers (two of 18, 11%) (P = .04). There was no evident difference in the presence of coronary artery calcification between age-matched marijuana smokers (21 of 30, 70%) and tobacco-only smokers (28 of 33, 85%) (P = .16).
It has been posited that certain maneuvers performed by marijuana smokers, such as full inhalation with a sustained Valsalva maneuver, may lead to microbarotrauma and peripheral airspace changes, such as apical bullae. In our study, paraseptal emphysema was the predominant pattern seen in marijuana smokers, while centrilobular emphysema was the predominant pattern seen in tobacco-only smokers. This may represent an earlier stage of apical bulla formation reported in marijuana smokers (19,20) and may explain the absence of the typical pulmonary function test changes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in marijuana smokers. The ?2 tests revealed similar overall rates of emphysema in the non–age-matched marijuana smoker group and the tobacco-only smoker groups and higher rates of emphysema among age-matched marijuana smokers compared with tobacco-only smokers. This is in contradistinction to a study by Ruppert et al (21), which showed similar prevalence of emphysema among 38 tobacco-only smokers and 32 tobacco and marijuana smokers but occurrence of emphysema in the latter group at a younger age. We were not able to establish a definite association between marijuana smoking and emphysema or bullous disease. Causality needs to be further examined in larger patient cohorts with prospective accurate quantification data, given the increasing body of evidence suggesting an association between smoking marijuana and spontaneous pneumothorax (22,23).
Bronchiectasis, bronchial wall thickening, and mucoid impaction are CT indicators of airway inflammation. Our findings suggest that smoking marijuana leads to chronic bronchitis in addition to the airway changes associated with smoking tobacco. This is especially striking given the extensive smoking history of patients in the tobacco-only group (smoking history, 25–100 pack-years). In addition, our results were still significant when comparing the non–age-matched groups, including younger patients who smoked marijuana and who presumably had less lifetime exposure to cigarette smoke. Further studies in larger cohorts are needed to better define imaging correlates of airway inflammation and chronic bronchitis that have been described in association with marijuana smoking in previous clinical studies and systematic literature reviews (2,24).
Poorly defined centrilobular ground-glass nodules can denote inflammatory small airway disease corresponding to the entity of respiratory bronchiolitis characterized by accumulation of pigmented histiocytes adjacent to respiratory bronchioles and alveolar ducts and sacs. This finding is commonly related to cigarette smoking (25,26) but can be related to inhalation of a variety of toxic particles (15). A histopathologic study comparing 10 marijuana smokers with five tobacco smokers and five nonsmokers reported that marijuana smoking was associated with massive intra-alveolar accumulation of pigmented histiocytes evenly throughout the pulmonary parenchyma, assumed to be related to higher particulate matter concentration and deeper and longer inhalation techniques used by marijuana smokers (27). In our study, we found no differences in the occurrence of centrilobular nodules between marijuana smokers and tobacco-only smokers. However, this may be because 89% (50 of 56) marijuana smokers were also tobacco smokers. Further assessment in imaging-based studies with larger patient cohorts and better quantification data are required. Furthermore, biopsy confirmation may be needed to better understand the histopathology of these nodules in marijuana smokers: Are they related to respiratory bronchiolitis or organizing pneumonia (described by Berkowitz et al [28]).
We were unable to confirm an association between coronary artery calcification and marijuana smoking, similar to a systematic review of 24 articles that reported that evidence on the association of marijuana use with cardiovascular risk factors is insufficient to make conclusions (29). At least one recent study of 146 young marijuana users with chest pain found that marijuana use did not confer additional risk of coronary artery disease, as detected with coronary CT angiography (30). Tobacco smoking, on the other hand, is an established risk factor for coronary artery disease (31). Our study also enabled us to confirm the well-known relationship between regular long-term marijuana use and gynecomastia (32).
Our study had limitations. First, the small sample size precluded us from drawing strong conclusions. Second, the retrospective nature of the study had its own inherent limitations. Third, there was inconsistent quantification of patient marijuana use, due in part to the previous illegal nature of marijuana possession, which led to a lack of patient reporting. Accurate quantification is further complicated by the fact that users often share joints, use different inhalation techniques, and use marijuana of varying potency. Fourth, given that most marijuana smokers also smoke tobacco, the synergistic effects of these two substances cannot be effectively evaluated. Fifth, only a portion of patients could be age matched, since the tobacco-only cohort was taken from the lung cancer screening study and the patients were aged at least 50 years. Due to the age mismatch in the larger cohort, there are differences in the duration of smoking. Lastly, variable interobserver agreement limits our ability to draw strong conclusions about bronchial wall thickening and bronchiectasis.
In conclusion, our study suggests that distinct radiologic findings in the lung may be seen in marijuana smokers, including higher rates of paraseptal emphysema and airway inflammatory changes, such as bronchiectasis, bronchial wall thickening, and mucoid impaction when compared with nonsmoker control patients and those who only smoke tobacco. These findings may be related to specific inhalational techniques while smoking marijuana, as well as to the bronchodilatory and immunomodulatory properties of its components. Further larger and prospective studies are necessary to confirm and further elucidate these findings, as marijuana use is bound to increase in the future, given the increasing legalization of its use for medical and recreational purposes.
New York Cannabis Farms Have $750 Million of Weed — and Nowhere to Sell It
Growers in upstate New York are figuring out how to keep a glut of weed fresh as the state stalls on retail licenses.
Bonno
18 novembre 2022 à 06:00 UTC-5
By almost all metrics, New York’s cannabis market rollout should be in the final innings. The state began handing out growing licenses to more than 200 farms last spring and farmers have since sowed seeds, tended to rows of plants all summer, and just in the last few weeks, finished harvesting. Now, hundreds of thousands of pounds of weed — worth hundreds of millions of dollars — is ready to be sold at dispensaries.
There’s one hitch: Instead of being shipped to retail stores, the weed is just piling up. Though a rampant gray market is already up and running, not one legal recreational dispensary has yet opened in New York, despite the state regulator’s repeated assurances that cannabis stores would be a fixture by the end of this year.
The languishing stockpiles — estimated to weigh around 300,000 pounds, according to the Office of Cannabis Management — pose a host of problems for farmers, not least of which is that over time, cannabis can deteriorate fast. Based on an average estimated wholesale value of about $2,500 per pound, according to Cannabis Benchmarks, a research firm that tracks wholesale marijuana prices nationwide, the hoard could be worth as much as $750 million. If farmers don’t get their harvest into stores soon, that near-billion-dollar revenue will eventually start to dwindle. In the meantime, farmers have to figure out how to store it indefinitely, making sure the weed is as fresh as possible while also keeping it safe from theft or potential contamination.
Applicants for one of the initial 150 individual retail licenses and 25 nonprofit licenses expect to hear back from the state any day, but a green light from the OCM is only the beginning of the long process involved in opening a storefront.
“It’s an unclear path to market,” said Melany Dobson, chief executive officer of Hudson Cannabis, a 520-acre farm about two hours north of New York City. “We’ve been told again and again that dispensaries will open before the end of the year. I’ve acted as though that’s our single source of proof, so we’re prepared for that.
Dobson has been running the operations, formerly known as Hudson Hemp, alongside her brother Ben Dobson, and sister Freya Dobson, since 2016. On a bright day in early November, the fields lay bare, with wisps of withering vegetation strewn about. Harvest had wrapped up the previous week and the heaps of cannabis were elsewhere, in a secure location.
Hudson Cannabis has the resources to do this: It’s owned by David Rockefeller’s daughter, Abby Rockefeller, and has been preparing for the transition to growing legal cannabis for years. Until recently, the project had been cultivating hemp — identical to cannabis, just with less than 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol — but now is almost solely focused on THC-rich cannabis varieties, with its first season consisting of 14 strains, ranging from “Dosidos” to “Sour Glue.”
Melany’s original financial model showed that revenue would start to stream in around November. “Which is this month,” she said, laughing. “So that’s clearly not the case.”
The OCM, which oversees cannabis licenses from its base in Albany, has set a high bar for its first round of retail proprietors — and given itself a mound of paperwork to wade through in the process. The state has promised the first licenses will go to applicants who were convicted of marijuana-related offenses before recreational pot was legalized, or their relatives, as long as they have experience owning and operating a business in New York. A lot of documentation is required to prove those credentials, along with a non-refundable $2,000 application fee.
Last Thursday, a federal judge in Albany temporarily blocked the OCM from issuing retail licenses in a handful of regions, including Brooklyn, after a lawsuit complained of overly stringent requirements.
“The goal is to open dispensaries by the end of this year,” said Aaron Ghitelman, a spokesperson for OCM. “We’re still gunning to get the first sales on board” by 2023.
The regulator had similar priorities in mind when it handed out cultivation licenses, giving them to smaller operations that had already been growing hemp — often used in legal CBD products — over big corporations with no experience in the state. The permits came with a long list of conditions, including that farms only grow one acre of so-called canopy (equivalent to about two acres of land area) and that the majority of the growing occurs outdoors.
That keeps New York’s farmers on a tight schedule, constrained by the typical Northeast climate. Farmers usually first plant the cannabis seeds in May to allow for it to be sun grown, as opposed to in greenhouses. The busy season is crammed between then and late October when harvest starts. For the rest of the year — or however long it takes for stores to be ready to place orders — the challenge is, literally, keeping the weed green.
Much like wine, cannabis needs to be kept in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment. During the drying process, for instance, the plants need to be kept at a precise temperature. Changes in the crop’s potency and smell are the biggest concerns for farmers over time, but it also changes visually.
“Old cannabis starts to have a brownish glow,” Melany said. If exposed to air, light and warmer temperatures for long enough, THC will eventually break down to another compound known as cannabinol, which is weaker, and ultimately, less valuable.
Hudson Cannabis claims it has the facilities to store harvested cannabis in conditions that limit degradation for as long as 12 months — an expensive set-up that not every grower has the resources to replicate. Dozens of stacked black and yellow bins already line the company’s storage facility, with each one holding about five pounds of the plant. Even so, the farmers are adapting their operation to account for delays.
“We’re not packaging or processing flower yet,” Melany said, referring to the raw portion of the plant that can be wielded into products, like dried, smokable cannabis. “We’re trying to retain as much quality as possible. And rushing it into the finished product bags is not the way to do that.”
When the storage facility’s doors are closed, it looks like any other agricultural warehouse. But when they’re opened, the telltale smell of the cannabis plant rushes out, posing yet another problem for the farmers: security.
All of the 261 cultivators granted a conditional license had to submit a security plan along with their application to the state. But there was little guidance as to what it should look like, and the plans were largely left up to the farmers’ discretion.
“We have an all-night in-person security presence,” said Ben Dobson, co-founder of Hudson Cannabis. “As a modern hippie I’m not in love with that. We’re trying to make it look good. We didn’t do the chain-link fence, we did the eight-foot tall deer fence. But it sucks.” So far, they’ve paid around $100,000 for a security system, but are gearing up to spend an additional $250,000 soon.
For Mario Rodriguez, who runs a private security firm based in Buffalo that has pushed into the cannabis industry, it means business has been booming in recent months. Forseti Protection Group, of which he’s president, focuses on the technology side of security, including services like infrared scanners that can be installed on a farm’s perimeter to detect trespassers. He says inquiries from potential clients have increased more than 10-fold in the past three months alone.
“They don’t know how much of their product is actually going to be rolled out,” said Rodriguez. “We’re just operating under the assumption that everything has to be safe and ready.”
Not every farm is like Hudson Cannabis, with its access to deep pockets and a combined decade’s worth of experience between Melany and Ben alone. The company also leases out swaths of land to nearby farmers to graze grass-fed beef and goats. The Dobsons are optimistic that they’ll be able to ride out the rocky period between harvest time and the first ground-breaking for retail dispensaries.
For many of the other farms across New York state, the stakes are higher. A glut of hemp-derived CBD products in recent years triggered a nationwide plummet in wholesale prices, leaving some growers in financial disarray or bankruptcy. Legal THC sales looked like a promising way for such farms to recoup their losses: The market for adult-use cannabis is projected to reach $1.3 billion in sales in New York City alone by next year, according to a statement in August from the mayor’s office. That $1.3 billion is largely owned by legacy.
Until those shops open up, farmers like the Dobsons are in a bind. Selling across state lines isn’t allowed, so growers don’t have the option to offload their crops to dispensaries in Massachusetts, New Jersey or states further afield that already have retail operations up and running. It’s New York or nowhere.
“We’re ready to launch a full suite of products into the New York market,” Ben said. “We’re spending money with no end in sight until the state gets its act together on retail.”
Doomed.
Busting the competition?
Back to square one??
Let,s see how that works for that stock market bunk.
They should "try" to grow better weed for pennies.
Doomed.
Germany’s plan to legalize recreational marijuana hits potential hurdle
Bonno
November 17, 2022
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The health minister of Germany’s largest state is asking a key European Union official to block Germany’s plan to regulate recreational marijuana production and sales.
Bavaria’s health minister, Klaus Holetschek, met in Brussels this week with Monique Pariat, the EU’s director-general for migration and home affairs, to make the request, according to the Associated Press.
Holetschek is a member of the center-right Union bloc, an opposition party.
According to the AP, Holetschek strongly opposes the blueprint by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to legalize cannabis in Europe’s largest economy.
In October, the German government published key details of its plan to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis, including what Health Minister Karl Lauterbach described as “complete” cultivation within the country.
Some international businesses had been hoping Germany would allow imports, possibly from other European Union countries, even though that would breach international drug-control treaties.
As part of that outline, Germany’s blueprint of the law is being sent to the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, for approval to ensure it is compatible with EU and global drug laws.
Germany’s government said the legislative process, including actually drafting a law, will continue only if the plan is approved by the EU.
According to the AP, Holetschek told the EU’s Pariat that “the German government’s planned cannabis legalization doesn’t just endanger health, but I am convinced that it also violates European law.”
If approved by the European Commission, and then ultimately by German lawmakers, the blueprint could serve as a basis for broader cannabis reform in countries across the European Union seeking to follow Germany’s example.
Home / Legal
GOP congressman compares marijuana industry to ‘slavery’
Bonno
November 17, 2022
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A Republican congressman notorious for blocking federal marijuana reform nearly derailed a “historic” Capitol Hill hearing on federal legalization Tuesday when he compared the MJ industry to slavery, comments other lawmakers decried as “offensive.”
During a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing in which lawmakers from both major parties mostly extolled legalization and called for federal reform, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, – who regularly blocked marijuana reform bills as chair of the House Rules committee from 2013 to 2019 – also offered a preview of the anti-legalization arguments likely to be heard during the next Congress and in statehouses across the country.
Sessions connected legalization to traffic fatalities and high-THC products to health problems, and studies examining both were introduced into the record.
But Sessions drew bipartisan criticism for a “patently offensive” comment in which he drew an analogy between the industry and slavery.
“The product is being marketed,” he said. “The product is being sold. The product has been advocated by people who were in it to make money.”
“Slavery made money also and was a terrible circumstance that this country and the world went through for many, many years.”
Sessions’ statement was disavowed by other lawmakers on the committee, who apologized for the “peculiar analogy.”
The Texas Republican also earned criticism from other witnesses giving testimony at the hearing, including the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Randall Woodfin, who is Black.
“Words matter,” Woodfin said, according to the Birmingham Times.
“While I’m on record, I would just like to say to you directly, your committee members, that putting cannabis and slavery in the same category is patently offensive and flagrant.”
Looks like "legalization will have to wait.