Lp,s are doomed!
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
4 species of Thai cannabis may help fight cancer, latest studies show
Home»In-Focus»4 Species Of Thai Cannabis May Help Fight Cancer, Latest Studies Show
Recently conducted scientific studies show that four breeds of Thai cannabis can be efficient in stopping the cells of several kinds of cancer from multiplying. The tests were conducted on lab-grown breast, kidney, lung, colorectal, brain and pancreatic cancer cells among others.
BonnoShare this article
4 species of Thai cannabis may help fight cancer, latest studies show
The study was conducted by the Department of Medical Sciences’ Herbal Research Institute with a focus on using cannabis for medical purposes.
“These cannabis breeds are Hang Sua Sakon Nakhon TT1, Tanao Sri Kan Khao WA1, Tanao Sri Kan Daeng RD1, and Hang Karok Phu Phan ST1,” Dr Bonno, the department’s director-general, said. “They are high in tetrahydrocannabinol [THC] and cannabidiol [CBD], which can be extracted using the supercritical fluid extraction method.
4 species of Thai cannabis may help fight cancer, latest studies show
“Experiments showed that THC and CBD collected from these cannabis breeds can efficiently stop lab-grown cancer cells of various types from developing and can also help mend lesions on lab-grown lung cells,” he added. “The toxicological experiment also revealed that cannabis extracts do not cause mutagenicity in bacteria. However, they have a possibility of becoming toxic to lab-grown kidney cells, liver cells and lung cells, in descending order.”
Bonno added that these findings have been published in the department’s medical journal to exhibit the medical quality of Thai cannabis while showing the possibility for toxicity in the cells of specific organs.
“The department will go ahead with experiments on animals and then enter the clinical trial stage to ensure cannabis extracts can be safely used among cancer patients,” he added.
Predictions for US market by 2030 say that it will be worth 40-70 billion USD.
Schumer's bill proposes federal taxes 12.5% (small producers) - 25% (big producers).
That would be 10-17.5 billion a year (best case scenario).
US spends 40 billion USD for cannabis prohibition a year.
So, just by not enforcing the idiotic prohibition on a plant, US would save 2-4x more than they'd get on taxes (in a best case scenario), every year. And that doesn't include spending tax money on prisoners and the rest of the expenses that put that number even higher than it is.
Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking
Organizations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on
US Crime
"Crime has decreased by 13 percent on average in the states that border Mexico since approving marijuana for medical use alone."
Test kits to be distributed to check if cannabis extract possession is legal
Home»In-Focus»Test Kits To Be Distributed To Check If Cannabis Extract Possession Is Legal
The Department of Medical Sciences aims to offer 15,000 sets of cannabis extract test kits free to enable citizens and entrepreneurs to check whether the cannabis extract in their possession is considered narcotics or not.
Bonno Share this article
Test kits to be distributed to check if cannabis extract possession is legal
Even though cannabis has been legalised for medical and commercial use from June 9, cannabis extract with Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) more than 0.2 per cent is still considered narcotics.
The department's director-general, Dr Supakit Sirilak, said if cannabis extract has THC more than 0.2 per cent, the extract must be sent to laboratories for further tests.
This move aims to enable people to access cannabis safely, as well as boosting laboratories' efficiency on cannabis extract verification in medicine, food, beverages and human blood, he said.
He explained that the "Test Kann" kit can provide results within 15 minutes and can be used outdoors similar to the Covid-19 antigen test kit.
Only one red-purple bar will appear on the test kit if THC exceeds 0.2 per cent, while two red-purple bars means THC does not exceed 0.2 per cent, he explained.
He said the department is currently considering which groups of people should receive the free 15,000 sets of test kits and when the giveaway should start.
He added that the department is ready to pass on technology related to the test kit to private organisations, so they will be able to produce the test kits for sale.
The production cost of this test kit is around 100 baht per set, he added.
Cannabis overdose cases drop sharply, govt dismisses addiction fears
The number of patients being treated for the effects of cannabis has dropped sharply a month after the herb was legalised, the Public Health Ministry reported on Saturday. Cannabis education works.
Share this article
Cannabis overdose cases drop sharply, govt dismisses addiction fears
Cannabis was removed from Thailand’s narcotics list on June 9, allowing people to grow the herb for medicinal and commercial purposes.
According to Bonno, the government’s cannabis public relations spokesman, 33 patients had been treated for effects of the herb in July, down 81.66 per cent from 180 patients in June.
He added that the number of patients undergoing medical treatment for cannabis intoxication has reached the lowest point since October.
“Most patients who have received treatment for cannabis overdose will be more careful when using herb and will not repeat their mistake," Panthep said, adding that some had even quit using the herb.
He also suggested that the reason why the number of cannabis addicts worldwide remained low was because most heavy users tend to fall asleep instead of seeking more of the herb.
Only thing that could change if the US government removed the silly caps and limits on how much weed you can grow or buy could be that the government might not get their cut. That's the same government that spends $40 billion a year enforcing the prohibition on that same plant.
. 2022 Jul 22;4(1):41. doi: 10.1186/s42238-022-00151-y.
Anti-cancer properties of cannflavin A and potential synergistic effects with gemcitabine, cisplatin, and cannabinoids in bladder cancer
Bonno 1, Erin G Whynot 1, Denis J Dupré 2
Affiliations expand
PMID: 35869542 DOI: 10.1186/s42238-022-00151-y
Cite
Abstract
Introduction: Several studies have shown anti-tumor effects of components present in cannabis in different models. Unfortunately, little is known about the potential anti-tumoral effects of most compounds present in cannabis in bladder cancer and how these compounds could potentially positively or negatively impact the actions of chemotherapeutic agents. Our study aims to evaluate the effects of a compound found in Cannabis sativa that has not been extensively studied to date, cannflavin A, in bladder cancer cell lines. We aimed to identify whether cannflavin A co-treatment with agents commonly used to treat bladder cancer, such as gemcitabine and cisplatin, is able to produce synergistic effects. We also evaluated whether co-treatment of cannflavin A with various cannabinoids could produce synergistic effects.
Methods: Two transitional cell carcinoma cell lines were used to assess the cytotoxic effects of the flavonoid cannflavin A up to 100 µM. We tested the potential synergistic cytotoxic effects of cannflavin A with gemcitabine (up to 100 nM), cisplatin (up to 100 µM), and cannabinoids (up to 10 µM). We also evaluated the activation of the apoptotic cascade using annexin V and whether cannflavin A has the ability to reduce invasion using a Matrigel assay.
Results: Cell viability of bladder cancer cell lines was affected in a concentration-dependent fashion in response to cannflavin A, and its combination with gemcitabine or cisplatin induced differential responses-from antagonistic to additive-and synergism was also observed in some instances, depending on the concentrations and drugs used. Cannflavin A also activated apoptosis via caspase 3 cleavage and was able to reduce invasion by 50%. Interestingly, cannflavin A displayed synergistic properties with other cannabinoids like ?9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, cannabichromene, and cannabivarin in the bladder cancer cell lines.
Discussion: Our results indicate that compounds from Cannabis sativa other than cannabinoids, like the flavonoid cannflavin A, can be cytotoxic to human bladder transitional carcinoma cells and that this compound can exert synergistic effects when combined with other agents. In vivo studies will be needed to confirm the activity of cannflavin A as a potential agent for bladder cancer treatment.
Keywords: Apoptosis; Bladder cancer; Cannabichromene; Cannabidiol; Cannabivarin; Cannflavin A; Cisplatin; Gemcitabine; Invasion; ?9-Tetrahydrocannabinol.
© 2022. The Author(s).
References
Bonno, Vinayaka AC, Shalev N, Namdar D, Nadarajan S, Anil SM, et al. Cannabis-derived compounds cannabichromene and ?9-tetrahydrocannabinol interact and exhibit cytotoxic activity against urothelial cell carcinoma correlated with inhibition of cell migration and cytoskeleton organization. Molecules. 2021;26(2):465. - PubMed - PMC - DOI
Bonno, Gordon D, Evans FJ. Isolation from Cannabis sativa L. of cannflavin--a novel inhibitor of prostaglandin production. Biochem Pharmacol. 1985;34:2019–24. - PubMed - DOI
Barrett ML, Scutt AM, Evans FJ. Cannflavin A and B, prenylated flavones from Cannabis sativa L. Experientia. 1986;42:452–3. - PubMed - DOI
Bellmunt J, Kim J, Reardon B, Perera-Bel J, Orsola A, Rodriguez-Vida A, et al. Genomic predictors of good outcome, recurrence, or progression in high-grade T1 non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Cancer Res. 2020;80:4476–86. - PubMed - DOI
Bellmunt J, von der Maase H, Mead GM, Skoneczna I, De Santis M, Daugaard G, et al. Randomized phase III study comparing paclitaxel/cisplatin/gemcitabine and gemcitabine/cisplatin in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer without prior systemic therapy: EORTC Intergroup Study 30987. J Clin Oncol. 2012;30:1107–13. - PubMed - PMC - DOI
Show all 46 references
Grant support
CRTP training award/Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute
Dept Pharmacology graduate bursary/Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University
CUASF-BCC Research grant/Bladder Cancer Canada
NCBI Literature Resources MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer
FOLLOW NCBI
Connect with NLM
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894
Protective Effects of Cannabis sativa on chemotherapy-induced nausea in a rat: Involvement of CB1 receptors
Bonno 1, Abeer Salama 2, Enayat A Omara 3
Affiliations expand
PMID: 35861135 DOI: 10.1111/fcp.12821
Cite
Abstract
Cyclophosphamide is an anticancer and immunosuppressive agent used in the treatment of various malignancies but causing gastrointestinal distress. Cannabis sativa (C. sativa) and its derivatives have been used for the treatment of human gastrointestinal disorders. A purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of C. sativa on nausea induced by cyclophosphamide in rats. The rats were divided into four groups (8 animals per group): Group 1: Normal control (saline i.p). Group 2: rats received cyclophosphamide (200 mg/kg i.p) 3 consecutive days. Group 3 and 4: Rats received cyclophosphamide (200 mg/kg ip) across days 1 - 7 and C. sativa (20 and 40 mg/kg sc) was administered on cyclophosphamide days 4 - 7. We examined intake of kaolin, normal food and changes in body weight, as an indicator of the emetic stimulus. Oxidative stress markers, antioxidant enzymes status, serotonin (5HT), dopamine, noradrenaline and CB1R levels were evaluated in the intestinal homogenate. Moreover, histopathological study was performed. Results showed that C. sativa ameliorates cyclophosphamide-induced emesis by increasing in body weight and normal diet intake with a decrease in kaolin diet intake after 7 days. Moreover, C. sativa significantly decreases (serotonin) 5HT, dopamine and noradrenaline, as well as, decreasing oxidative stress and inflammation. Administration of C. sativa significantly increased the expression of CB1R in intestinal homogenate. Treatment with C. sativa, also, improved the histological feature of an intestinal tissue. These results suggested that C. sativa possess antiemetic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in chemotherapy-induced nausea in rats by activating CB1R.
Keywords: Dopamine; Inflammation; Kaolin; Oxidative stress; Serotonin.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
NCBI Literature Resources MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer
FOLLOW NCBI
Connect with NLM
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894
WAR ON DRUGS
Chuck Schumer's Doomed Marijuana Monstrosity Is Not a Serious Attempt To Repeal Pot Prohibition
The Senate majority leader's 296-page bill would compound the barriers to successful legalization.
Bonno | 7.21.2022 3:45 PM
The first thing we should say about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's marijuana legalization bill, which the New York Democrat finally filed today, more than a year after sharing a discussion draft, is that it will not pass. With the Senate evenly divided, Schumer needs Republican support to overcome a filibuster, which he has done little to attract. He can't even count on unanimous support from his fellow Democrats, at least a few of whom are apt to be leery of his specific approach, if not altogether opposed to repealing the federal ban on marijuana.
What is Schumer's approach? Last July, I criticized his 163-page discussion draft as excessively complicated, burdensome, and prescriptive. I said it was "larded with new taxes, regulations, and spending programs that seem designed to alienate Republicans who might be inclined to support a cleaner bill on federalist grounds." The same is true of the new, supposedly improved version, but more so.
Schumer's Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which is cosponsored by Sens. Cory Booker (D–N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D–Ore.), now weighs in at 296 pages, nearly twice as long as the initial version. Whatever this is, it is not a serious attempt to build a bipartisan coalition in favor of eliminating the untenable conflict between federal marijuana prohibition and the laws of the 37 states that allow medical or recreational use of cannabis.
Start with taxes, which have been a formidable barrier to the displacement of the black market in states that set them too high. Those levies are one of the main reasons why unlicensed dealers in states like California still account for most marijuana sales. Given a decade of experience with that problem, the most prudent federal tax on cannabis products would be zero. Yet Schumer's first draft called for a federal excise tax starting at 10 percent and rising to 25 percent by the fifth year, which would be in addition to frequently hefty state and local taxes. After a year of consultation and consideration, Schumer has retained that provision, although the rates would be half as high for manufacturers with proceeds below specified levels.*
Regulation is another factor that has made it difficult for state-licensed marijuana suppliers to compete with black-market dealers. The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act devotes 71 pages to new federal regulations of marijuana businesses that are already regulated by state and local governments, on top of the 52 pages dealing with taxation. In addition to giving the Treasury Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives authority over the cannabis industry, the bill would establish a Center for Cannabis Products within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA would be charged with registering marijuana businesses, setting product standards, establishing labeling requirements, policing "adulterated" and "misbranded" products, regulating advertising and promotion, and imposing "restrictions on sale and distribution."
In addition to mandating specific rules, such as a nationwide minimum purchase age of 21 and a ban on added flavors in cannabis vaping products, Schumer's bill would give the FDA carte blanche to impose any regulations it deems appropriate. It says the FDA may "impose other restrictions on the sale and distribution of cannabis products, including restrictions on the access to, and the advertising and promotion of, the cannabis product," if it "determines that such regulation would be appropriate for the protection of the public health."
California Enacts Gun Control Law Modeled on Texas' SB 8 Anti-Abortion Law
Given the FDA's dubious sense of what protecting public health means in other areas, such as regulation of tobacco and nicotine vaping products, that is a pretty scary clause. As in those contexts, whatever arbitrary rules the agency comes up with are bound to restrict consumer choice and help perpetuate the black market.
The new version of Schumer's bill also retains "social equity" spending programs that are apt to turn off Republicans. The Community Reinvestment Grant Program would "provide eligible entities with funds to administer services for individuals adversely impacted by the War on Drugs," including job training, reentry services, legal aid, literacy programs, "youth recreation or mentoring programs," and "health education programs." The Cannabis Restorative Opportunity Program would "provide loans and technical assistance" to "assist small business concerns owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals." The Equitable Licensing Grant Program would provide funds to "develop and implement equitable cannabis licensing programs that minimize barriers to cannabis licensing and employment for individuals adversely impacted by the War on Drugs."
These programs resemble the ones described in the 91-page Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, the comparatively slim bill that the House passed in April. The MORE Act managed to attract just three Republicans, two fewer than voted for an earlier version of the bill that the House approved in December 2020. One of those GOP votes was cast by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–Fla.), the MORE Act's lone Republican cosponsor, and even he objected to the "social equity" stuff.
These programs ostensibly are aimed at ameliorating the damage done by the war on drugs. But they would be funded by taxes on cannabis consumers, who seem like the least likely group to blame for the harm caused by the federal government's 85-year war on weed. My preference would be to make the politicians who supported that morally and empirically bankrupt crusade, who until four years ago included Schumer, pay for the reparations. Short of that, the money should come out of the general fund, on the theory that the voters who kept reelecting drug warriors like Schumer and Joe Biden deserve to foot the bill for the resulting wreckage.
Better still, rather than trying to help "small business concerns owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals" and entrepreneurs "adversely impacted by the War on Drugs" by throwing around taxpayer money, the government should get out of their way by reducing or eliminating the daunting obstacles created by licensing requirements, heavy regulation, and high taxes. Instead, Schumer has decided to toss more obstacles in their path, then use the proceeds raised by his new taxes to help some of them overcome those obstacles.
Having seen the meager and waning Republican support for the MORE Act, knowing that Democrats are apt to lose control of one or both houses of Congress this fall, and after thinking about it for more than year, Schumer seems to have concluded that a bill three times as long is the key to success. I guess that depends on how you define success. If the goal is to appease progressive Democrats, signal Schumer et al.'s virtue, and blame Republicans for the inevitable failure of his supposedly good-faith effort to end marijuana prohibition, he probably has the right recipe. But if the goal is to repeal unjust laws, make up for some of the harm they caused, and resolve the risk and uncertainty that plague the cannabis industry, a different approach might be better.
There are other options. The Common Sense Cannabis Reform Act, sponsored by Rep. Dave Joyce (R–Ohio), is one-twentieth as long as Schumer's monstrosity. The States Reform Act, which Rep. Nancy Mace (R–S.C.) unveiled last fall, is more deferential to state policy choices and imposes a much lower tax that would be locked in place for 10 years, which would facilitate the transition to a legal market. The Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2017, sponsored by then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R–Calif.), consisted of a single sentence that said the federal marijuana ban would not apply to conduct authorized by state law.
All of those bills have attracted more Republican support than the MORE Act did. Rohrabacher's bill had 46 cosponsors, including 14 Republicans. Joyce's bill has nine cosponsors, including five Republicans. Mace's bill has just four cosponsors, all of them Republicans (one of whom died last March). This is hardly a GOP stampede, but it's a start. Democrats like Schumer, by contrast, are acting like they do not care whether anyone across the aisle joins the legalization effort, even though that effort cannot succeed without cooperation from at least some Republicans.
There is some good stuff in Schumer's bill. Descheduling marijuana would be good. So would expunging the records of marijuana offenders, freeing those who are still behind bars, banning discrimination against cannabis consumers in immigration and the distribution of public benefits, and restoring their Second Amendment rights, which would be a byproduct of descheduling marijuana. Likewise for eliminating barriers to marijuana banking and scrapping IRS rules that dramatically boost the income taxes that marijuana businesses have to pay. But you have to wonder whether at least some of this could have been accomplished by legislation that had a chance of passing in the shrinking time that Democrats still have control of Congress.
Actually, you don't have to wonder. Legislation that would allow financial institutions to serve marijuana businesses without fear of criminal or regulatory penalties has been repeatedly approved by the House with broad, bipartisan support. But it has languished in the Senate, where Schumer has insisted that his own legislation take priority. The SAFE Banking Act, which would address a potentially lethal barrier that forces marijuana merchants to rely heavily on cash, making them ripe targets for robbery, would already be law but for Schumer's opposition.
I would say this is a classic example of making the perfect the enemy of the good, except that Schumer's bill, in addition to being doomed, is woefully misguided. In the name of legitimizing marijuana businesses, it hits them and their customers with new taxes and makes them subject to the whims of an agency that cannot be trusted to properly weigh costs and benefits, let alone protect the interests of consumers. In the name of replacing unauthorized dealers with licensed suppliers, it aggravates the factors that give the former an advantage over the latter.
"By failing to act," Wyden says in a press release, "the federal government is empowering the illicit cannabis market." That's exactly what this bill's taxes and regulations would do.
It may be impossible to get any sort of legalization bill, even a narrow one focused on repealing the federal marijuana ban and expunging the records of its victims, through the Senate anytime soon. Even if it passed, President Biden, given his continuing support for federal prohibition, might well veto it. But Democrats had an opportunity to pass more-modest marijuana reforms that would do some good right now, and they seem determined to squander it.
*CORRECTION: This post has been revised to note the reduced excise-tax rates for small-to-medium-sized manufacturers.
Two ways to make a stock market weed dolla...
One is to be a LP CEO.
The second way is to load up early and sell on legalization news.
(Those days are long gone Happy).
Chasing the dragon gets you nowhere fast.
Seven US marijuana CEOs saw compensation top $4 million in 2021
author Bonno, Legal & Regulatory Reporter
July 20, 2022 - Updated July 20, 2022
SHARE
Highest-Paid CEOs of U.S. Marijuana MSOs
Top executives at the largest publicly traded U.S. marijuana companies each received up to $2.6 million in salary and bonuses in fiscal 2021, with stock and option awards boosting total individual compensation to as much as $16 million, according to regulatory filings.
Seven CEOs at these multistate marijuana operators topped the $4 million mark in total compensation in 2021, compared with just one during the previous fiscal year.
As in 2020, Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers was the only woman leading one of the 15 top marijuana MSOs. White men led the rest.
Several marijuana MSO executives below the rank of CEO also drew multimillion-dollar compensation packages, including one at $14 million.
In 2021, the two highest compensated marijuana MSO executives were CEOs rewarded for taking their companies public: Illinois-based Verano Holdings and New York-based Ascend Wellness Holdings.
“There continues to be a high rate of executive turnover and M&A transactions in the industry,” noted Fred Whittlesey, a marijuana compensation expert and founder of the Compensation Venture Group near Seattle.
“Every time there is a hiring, firing or merger, numbers get distorted as executives receive severances, hiring bonuses, new-hire stock grants,” he wrote in an email.
Or, in the case of mergers, the buyer often pays a premium over current market price.
Columbia Care co-founder and longtime CEO Nicholas Vita had a total compensation package worth $4.1 million in 2021.
But he could emerge with more than $100 million in cash and stock following Cresco Labs’ pending acquisition of the New York-based multistate marijuana operator – a 16% premium at the time of the announcement.
The package includes a potential $12.2 million change-in-control benefit.
“It’s important to know the story behind the numbers as the industry continues to go through tumultuous times,” Whittlesey wrote.
Year-to-year differences
Executive compensation packages generally vary year to year because some companies provide stock or option awards to their top executives once every two years rather than annually.
For example, Cresco CEO Charlie Bachtell led the list of best-paid U.S. marijuana CEOs in 2020 with total compensation of nearly $4.5 million, largely because of an option award valued at $3.9 million.
But Bachtell didn’t receive equity awards in 2021, when he had one of the lowest total compensation packages among his peers: $1.2 million.
Acreage Holdings CEO Peter Caldini also had one of the lowest compensation packages for marijuana CEOs in 2021, totaling just $900,000. But his numbers will be much higher in 2022.
Caldini soon will receive three bonuses of $833,000 each, for a total of $2.5 million, in reward for his continued service and to provide retention incentives, according to a regulatory filing from last week.
Stock-based pay volatile
Whittlesey also stressed how speculative the stock-based compensation numbers are.
Compensation breakdown for top multistate operators
Show 10 entries:
Name Company Total Compensation Salary Bonus Incentive Plan Stock Options Other
George Archos Verano Holdings $16,034,122 $367,694 $200,000 $15,342,890 $123,524 $14
Abner Kurtin Ascend Wellness $15,960,000 $851,827 $350,000 $1,000,000 $13,750,000 $8,173
James Cacioppo Jushi Holdings $9,871,132 $487,132 $2,124,000 $7,260,000
Kim Rivers Trulieve Cannabis $8,054,480 $500,000 $1,280,000 $1,399,991 $2,354,938 $2,519,551
Robert Groesbeck (co-CEO) Planet 13 Holdings $6,495,401 $492,918 $492,000 $5,472,785 $37,698
Larry Scheffler (co-CEO) Planet 13 Holdings $6,486,865 $492,918 $492,000 $5,472,785 $29,162
Nicholas Vita Columbia Care $4,146,884 $485,753 $360,000 $3,300,003
Jason Wild (excecutive chair) TerrAscend $2,278,385 $516,216 $1,762,169
Jonathan Sandelman Ayr Wellness $1,786,458 $586,458 $1,200,000
Boris Jordan (executive chair) Curaleaf Holdings $1,750,000 $750,000 $1,000,000
Showing 1 to 10 of 15 entriesPreviousNext
Source: Regulatory filings, Fred Whittlesey, Compensation Venture Group
“The crash in cannabis stock prices shows that actual pay may be a fraction of the required disclosed figures reported last year,” he wrote in the email.
For example, Jushi Holdings CEO James Cacioppo received a grant of 2.92 million options in 2021, according to the company’s proxy statement.
Unlike other marijuana companies, Florida-based Jushi didn’t report a value for the option award in the executive compensation summary table, as is customary.
Whittlesey calculated the value of Cacioppo’s options at $7.26 million at the time of the award on Oct. 27, 2021, using a moderate range of assumptions and stock price volatility.
Jushi calculated a value of $7.15 million for the option grant, after being contacted by MJBizDaily.
But today, the value of those options is much lower, because Jushi’s stock price has declined more than 50% from $3.81 on Oct. 27, 2021, to roughly $1.75 per share.
Jushi calculated a fair market value of $2.4 million for those options as of last week’s stock price, while Whittlesey calculated a $4.7 million fair market value.
Fair market is a hypothetical value based on what would likely occur under “normal” conditions. Market value, by contrast, is what the stock actually sells for at a given point in time, such as when an executive exercises the options.
Whittelsey stressed that the hypothetical calculation depends on what values are placed in the formula, such as volatility.
“It’s easy to change assumptions to bring the number down,” Whittlesey wrote. “There are a lot of moving parts in an option valuation.”
As a practical matter, the calculation is unimportant, Whittlesey noted. The options are worth zero today because the stock price is well below the option-exercise price of $3.91 per share.
But Cacioppo’s options don’t expire until Oct. 27, 2031, so there’s plenty of time for the stock to recover, appreciate and make the options worth millions of dollars.
Verano CEO George Archos topped the list as the highest-paid CEO at a publicly traded U.S. marijuana MSO, with 2021 compensation valued at just over $16 million.
The bulk of that sum included a stock award valued at $15.3 million.
Steve Mazeika, Verano’s director of communications, referred to the regulatory filing that indicated that the equity award was associated with Verano going public in early 2021 through a reverse takeover of an existing company.
Darren Weiss, Verano’s chief operating officer, received a stock award valued at $13.8 million related to that deal, boosting his total compensation package to $14.3 million, according to regulatory filings.
“Following our (initial public offering), we instituted a normalized corporate compensation structure, which will be outlined in a future public proxy statement,” Mazeika wrote in an email.
Abner Kurtin, CEO of New York-based Ascend Wellness, held the No 2. spot in 2021, with a compensation package valued at $15.96 million, according to the company’s proxy statement.
That included a stock award valued at $13.75 million.
Ascend Wellness noted in a statement to MJBizDaily that Kurtin’s compensation included a one-time bonus related to the company’s IPO, “and is therefore not reflective of his typical yearly compensation.”
The company added that Kurtin elected to take all of his 2022 compensation, with the exception of certain health care and other benefits, as Ascend Wellness common stock.
Jushi’s Cacioppo was the third-highest-compensated marijuana CEO in 2021, with a total package valued at $9.87 million.
In addition to his option award valued by Whittlesey, Cacioppo earned the highest total cash compensation of $2.6 million in 2021.
That included a salary of $487,132 and a bonus of $2,124,000 – the largest bonus paid to a U.S. marijuana CEO in 2021.
The bonus, however, was “put toward the repayment” of executive loans to the company, according to Jushi’s proxy statement.
Trulieve referred to the company’s regulatory filings, which describe Rivers’ total compensation of $8 million in 2021.
Rivers, who ranked fourth in total compensation, heads a company that has long been at or toward the top of MSO profitability.
Meanwhile, Florida-based Trulieve rivals Massachusetts-based Curaleaf Holdings as the largest MSO in terms of total revenue.
Trulieve said in its regulatory filings that it believes in providing its senior executives with a “competitive pay package that includes a strong link between corporate performance and compensation” and that includes a combination of salary, annual bonuses and “long-term incentives in the form of equity-based compensation.”
Whittlesey noted that although the value of the 2021 equity awards have declined, the situation could reverse in the future.
Marijuana stock prices have taken a beating in large part because federal legalization hopes waned after a burst of enthusiasm following the 2020 elections, when Democrats took back the White House and, by the slimmest of margins, the U.S. Senate.
“I think everyone in the industry is hoping the reverse (in stock prices) occurs going forward and realized pay could be much higher over the next few years from the grants made in 2021,” Whittlesey wrote.
Yup!!!
Time to get creative?
That is a great news. The farmers will have 100% shares in their business.
As it should...
Say what? You want to make money??
Looks like you will have to work for a living!
Or, invest in an LP..
They got it down!
Carl K Linn's Cannabis in Thailand
@CarlKLinn3
·tobonno
9h
The Benefits of Freedom:
With easy access to dried cannabis buds and no licenses or registration for growing up to 2 rai (5 acres) of plants, Thailand is creating an economic powerhouse that will reduce poverty and expand its tourist industry for years to come.
Canada’s 10mg edibles limit empowering black market, hamstringing legal industry
David Brown Insight
Nearly three years into cannabis edibles becoming legal in the Canadian market, producers and retailers say higher potency edibles continue to be a driver of the illicit market, hamstringing the legal industry as well as Health Canada’s own public health concerns.
While legal producers are limited to no more than 10mg per serving, and per package for edible products (there are some workarounds such as ingestible oils), similar products are commonly sold on the black market that can have potentially hundreds of milligrams of THC—or at least advertise that they do—says Niel Marotta, president and CEO of edibles manufacturer Indiva.
In his work as the co-chair of the edibles caucus at the Cannabis Council of Canada (C3), Marotta says he and many others in the industry are actively lobbying Health Canada to make them aware of their concerns.
“Part of our effort right now is to inform all levels of government, in particular Health Canada, of what I would describe as a half-million dollar market failure. When you look at the edibles category in Canada over the last two-plus years as a percentage of the entire market it’s only about 5%. When you look at mature markets it’s more like 15% when you look at recent data from Colorado.”
“Some of that gap may just be time,” he continues,” but I think you can draw a straight line to the potency issue, where it’s obvious people are going back to the illicit market for higher potency edibles.”
“It’s obvious people are going back to the illicit market for higher potency edibles.”
NIEL MAROTTA, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF INDIVA.
Beena Goldenberg, the CEO of OrganiGram, another edibles manufacturer and member of C3, says the issue is also one relating to manufacturing practices and for the extra waste created by only allowing 10mg THC per package. This is especially true for consumers who aren’t satisfied with such low THC limits.
“Consumers want a product that has higher THC. With a cap of 10mg per package, we often have two or four gummies in a package which means each gummy might be only 2.5 mg. There are people out there that won’t make any difference to … so you’re eating a lot of candy to get your THC.”
Goldenberg says she believes what is needed is not necessarily higher potency in a single serving, but just increasing the allowed limit per package. Leaving the 10mg limit per serving, but allowing potentially 100mg per package would go a long way to making the products more appealing to consumers, especially those currently going to the illicit market.
“If you could do a 100mg package and you could have ten 10mg pieces in it, isn’t that better?”
BEENA GOLDENBERG, CEO OF ORGANIGRAM,
She argues this in itself is a public health and safety issue because every consumer going to the illicit market is taking a risk buying products with no standardized testing.
“Certainly when we look at the mature markets, there are offerings at much higher than 10mg, and so we really want to get to 100mg in a package. We want to be competitive with the illicit market, but with all the benefits of the legal market, meaning it has all the safety and precautionary rules that currently don’t exist in the illicit market.”
Christina Clarke, the CEO of the Songhees Development Corporation, which operates a provincially-licensed cannabis retail store on Vancouver Island, says she knows that edibles remain one of the main drivers of demand in the illicit market.
Although legal products in nearly every other cannabis product category are competitive with the illicit market in terms of price, quality, and variety, edibles lag behind.
“If people are going to go to the black market because the product they want is not in the regular market, then if it’s a product that’s safe we should be able to sell that in the legal market and not leave it as a product (only in) the black market.”
“The reality is, anybody who’s an edibles user knows, those doses are really quite low for somebody, especially if you’re a regular user of edibles. Your tolerance is such that some of these (edibles) barely do anything. I’m waiting for the market to catch up with what the customer wants.”
Cannabis Edibles from Nevada. 100mg THC in a box.
Jennawae McLean, the co-owner of Calyx + Trichomes Cannabis and the Executive Director of Norml Canada, says she agrees with the idea of opening up the limit to at least allow producers to sell more than 10mg per package, even if the potency on individual servings stays the same.
“(Ten)mg is fine for a suggested serving, but edibles should not be 10mg per pack,” McLean tells StratCann.
“In other regulated markets, the limit per package is not as restrictive as it is in Canada. A couple of weeks ago I was in Las Vegas and was able to get edibles that had many 10mg portions per bar or box.
“Customers mostly get confused about the price per mg (which seems expensive) and the quantity limit,” continues McLean. “Unregulated edibles seem half the price for 10x the potency.”
Canada’s 10mg potency limit was in part informed by feedback from states like Colorado and Washington that legalized cannabis for non-medical purposes several years prior to Canada. When these states initially legalized they had very few restrictions on edibles potencies and saw a lot of problems with people consuming too much, increasing emergency room visits and other health and safety concerns.
“10mg is fine for a suggested serving, but edibles should not be 10mg per pack,”
JENNAWAE MCLEAN, CO-OWNER OF CALYX + TRICHOMES CANNABIS AND THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF NORML CANADA
These states have since imposed more strict standards, with some only allowing 10mg or even 5mg of THC per serving, but still allowing much more THC to be in a package. Colorado, for example, has had a 10mg per serving limit in place now for several years but allows up to 100mg per package.
“Now is the time to review this area,” adds Goldenberg from Organigram. “Maybe it was fine at first, the idea of starting slow, but we can now see that after three years, we are unintentionally keeping the illicit market active in this area because we are not providing equivalent legal options to consumers.
“If you could do a 100mg package and you could have ten 10mg pieces in it, isn’t that better?”
We have asked Dr. Bonno for an opinion.
" 10mg portion is a joke... most patients and partakers eat 4 grams of 65% THC 6% CBD RSO on a daily basis to hardly no effects, except for better sleep, clear focus calm mind, less pain etc.
Those will never buy from LP,s, they happily buy bulk online.
Bump up stock market oil from 2.5mg to 10mg will have folks like Happy run for cover, paranoid out of their minds.
Not ideal for repeat business."
Featured image of cannabis edibles at Indiva’s production facility in London, ON. Photo credit: Indiva Inc
Simon loves to buy duds... lol
They concluded, “From an economic perspective, it seems clear the cannabis industry has been a great success, with more to come as it continues to grow.”
What a crock of shit...
Right... Trump won the election.
Lol
DOOMED!!!
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
to bonno
·
18h
If the Canadian government actors were in any way competent they would have legalized farmgate sales from Day 1, with no more barrier to entry than registering to pay a regular sales tax, (GST/PST) like any other small business.
NEW BRUNSWICK MANDATES LICENSES AFTER VIOLATIONS BY ORGANIGRAM
BONNOJULY 19, 2022
CANNABIS CANADAFEATUREDLAWMARIJUANA NEWSPOLITICSSCIENCE0COMMENTS62019VIEWS
Poor cultivation practices led to the mandatory testing of cannabis during Canada’s medical era. More than one cultivator was at fault for incidents involving banned pesticides, though. And in 2019, one of the guilty producers led to more mandatory tests and new licenses after a different violation.
Mandatory tests for license holders
A report on the issue discussed new testing policies designed to mitigate and prevent more major contamination events. Beyond testing facilities, a new license system launches next month. Rather than pesticides, Organigram operated cooling towers without an adequate cleaning system. Bacteria built up inside the system and blew across Moncton, New Brunswick. An outcry ensued over the lack of mandatory rules after the incident since more than a dozen individuals fell seriously ill.
Tests are one step toward containing future outbreaks. But Bill 91 includes a guideline for the new registry of cooling tower licenses after Organigram’s violation. And according to a press release by New Brunswick’s Ministry of Health, licenses to operate cooling towers will be mandatory beginning August 1, 2022. But the annual $450 fee was waived until March 31, 2023
Dorothy Shephard mandated a cooling tower license in response to Organigram's violation that caused a Legionairre's outbreak.
Swapping ministers
Bill 91 governs the new license system for cooling towers, proposed by former Minister of Health — Dorothy Shephard. But shortly after the bill passed, Shephard was swapped with the Minister of Social Development, Bruce Fitch. The reason for this, though, was an unfortunate death in a waiting room in a hospital’s emergency ward.
Earlier on June 30, however, Premier Higgins announced New Brunswick’s new Deputy Health Minister. And shortly after the law passed, Organigram settled an older class action suit.
One out of two ain,t bad...
Peter Grinspoon, M.D.
@Peter_Grinspoon
·
1h
medical #cannabis in #palliative care: to Bonno
48.14% experienced an improvement in pain, 44.95% used fewer opioids, and 85.11% had an improvement in at least one symptom. Adverse effects were low at 3.72%.
(I've seen patients do really well...)
cureus.com
Experience With Medical Marijuana for Cancer Patients in the Palliative Setting
Objectives: Medical marijuana is a symptom treatment option for palliative cancer patients; however, its useful applications remain limited. The goals of this study were to review the characteri...
Health Canada should allow Budrenders to inform newbies.
Most budtender don,t stay 30 days.
Minimum wages caper.
No incentive to sell more... fidelity points, bonus, free gifts.
Stock market cannabis market is a moribond industry.
They have it all wrong... the culprit is not cannabis.
The reason why folks end up at the local hospital is because newbies are cannabis naive and they don,t or don,t know how to titrate...
Reading Happy post claiming her old man was tipsy after scarfing up a 2.5 thc drink is showing us exactly what not to do.
What not to do?
Don,t drink the whole bottle.
Small sip, wait 30 minutes, another sip, wait 30 minutes.
One has to fill up their Endo-Cannabinoid with baby steps.
Once done... there are practically no thc limit one has to watch for.
30 grams a day is about average for folks in the trade.
I,m thinking that Klein should try it.
Could very well be the missing link?
Does cannabis usage lead to more hospital visits?
According to a Canadian study by the BMJ Open Respiratory Research, people who used cannabis were hospitalized or went to emergency rooms 22% more often than those who did not partake.
Researchers at Unity Health Toronto and ICES, an independent, non-profit research institute formerly known as the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Canada, led the research. Their study was on Ontario residents aged 12-65 between Jan. 1 2009-Dec. 31, 2015.
“Our research demonstrates that cannabis use in the general population is associated with heightened risk of clinically serious negative outcomes, specifically, needing to present to the ED or be admitted to hospital,” lead author Dr. Nicholas Vozoris, a lung specialist at St. Michael’s and an associate scientist at its Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, said in a press release.
“Unlike tobacco, there is some uncertainty or controversy regarding the adverse health impacts of cannabis. Some individuals may perceive that cannabis has some health benefits and is otherwise benign. Our research highlights to those using — or considering to use — cannabis, that this is associated with important negative health events.”
The study sought to determine if there was an association between marijuana use and hospitalizations or emergency room visits that were related to lung issues.
“The results of our research support that health care professionals and government should discourage recreational cannabis consumption in the general population. Given the context of cannabis decriminalization in Canada, which has very likely facilitated the broader use of this product in the population, more efforts need to made from our health and political leaders to educate and remind citizens about the harmful impacts of cannabis on health,” Vozoris said.
Pesticides change flavour or why LP,s weed taste like shit!
Bonno
HEALTH CANADA ADMITS PESTICIDES CHANGE THE FLAVOUR
JULY 17, 2022
CANNABIS 101
360154 VIEWS
Over the past three to four years, Health Canada has refused one question. The department would not explain why they authorized licensed producers to spray sulphur on flowering cannabis intended for smoking. Finally, following the third attempt, Health Canada admits that pesticides change the flavour.
Shortly after legalization, rules on ACMPR licensed patients sharing seeds was passed back and forth like a ping-pong ball between Health and Justice Canada. Eventually, Health Canada gave a reply. Health Canada’s media department even followed up when asked if they considered the possibility of strange quantum structures (hopfions) in liquid crystals regarding Covid vaccines. The response was admittedly generic. But their media department still replied to the question. In fact, considerations for approving sulphur on cannabis is the only question Health Canada refused to answer — and they did so twice.
Pesticides after combustion
What considerations did the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) take when authorizing vaporizable and wettable sulphur-based pesticides for flowering cannabis intended for inhalation (i.e. cannabis in a pre-rolled ‘joint’)?
Before a pesticide product is approved for use in Canada, Health Canada’s PMRA must determine that it has value (for example, that it works as claimed by the manufacturer). And that there are no health and environmental risks of concern. This is the process used for approving all pesticides in Canada, including those registered for use on cannabis.
Specifically, PMRA’s assessment of pesticides considers the toxicity and the level of exposure, which includes the rate, timing and frequency of applications, to characterize risk. When Agrotek Vaporizable Sulphur and NM Bartlett, Wettable Sulphur are used according to label directions, there are no health concerns.:
Tammy Jarbeau | Senior Media Relations Advisor |Communications and Public Affairs Branch | Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada
Interestingly, the combustion of sulphur produces toxic and deadly gasses known as sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide (H2S). One sulphur product authorized for use in commercial cannabis production gives this warning in the MSDS. Health Canada’s confidence should assume that no residues of environmental sulphur remain on the flowering plants if a producer follows the label.
pesticides change flavour
Diagram of a sulphur burner courtesy of Zhang et Al. 2020.
Sulphur is an oxidizer
Did Health Canada (or the PMRA) consider acceptable limits of sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide when authorizing Vaporizable Sulphur and Wettable Sulphur as IPM strategies on flowering cannabis crops?
Good Production Practices for Cannabis are such that it is best to achieve pest control prior to flower. Application of a pesticide such as sulphur on leaves can leave residues that change the desired flavour profile of the harvested cannabis.
Tammy Jarbeau
Sulphur and oxygen have similar actions on molecules within cannabis. The former, however, is more dynamic and causes a complex array of chemical reactions. A straightforward explanation is that sulphur impacts the chemical composition of the flower, shifting or degrading terpenes.
Self-regulated solutions
Health Canada is re-evaluating numerous pesticides, including sulphur. Potassium salts and potassium bicarbonate are approved for use on cannabis but currently undergoing the information gathering phase for re-evaluation this year. At the same time, diatomaceous earth finished a consultation for re-evaluation last month. Scheduled the following years is mineral oil as well as Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner ssp. kurstaki (used in AEF Global’s Bioprotec.)
Self-regulation before government oversight is critical. To accomplish this, a producer can strictly use a crop for edible and topical products if they adamantly want to spray sulphur-based pesticides during a late flowering stage. Keep in mind that sulphur turns into sulphides in the gut but only causes gastrointestinal issues after large doses.
Producers should work hard to keep sulphur residues and powdery mildew out of joints, bongs, and those pesky vape pens that combust concentrates. A successful crop requires beneficial insects, better-growing practices, and good genetics. Section 81 of the Cannabis Regulations, however, allows producers to treat Edible Cannabis with products not authorized under the Pest Control Products Act (PCPA).
Let us know in the comments if you think pesticides change more than cannabis’s flavour.
Sources
Zhang, Feichi & Heidarifatasmi, Hosein & Harth, Stefan & Zirwes, Thorsten & Wang, Robert & Fedoryk, Michal & Sebbar, Nadia & Habisreuther, Peter & Trimis, Dimosthenis & Bockhorn, Henning. (2020). Numerical evaluation of a novel double-concentric swirl burner for sulfur combustion. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 133. 110257. 10.1016/j.rser.2020.110257.
https://www.thailandweed.com/
Get yours today!!!
Off to Thailand
River Kway aims for 5 cents a gram.
Jamie Shaw ??
@jamiesashaw
Legal Thai cannabis producer River Kwai gearing up to provide cannabis to the world for 5 cents a gram. Australia sent their Trade and Investment Commission to Berlin to represent and promote its cannabis industry. Canada: *crickets*
8:54 AM · Jul 18, 2022·Twitter for iPhone
What happens when the elephant in the room is the room itself?
That question for investors in Aurora Cannabis was finally answered with news this last quarter that its massive state-of-the-art Sky greenhouse outside Edmonton would be shuttered in the fall.
Announced with great fanfare in 2018, the 800,000 sq. foot Sky facility was designed to be as close to automated as you can get, estimated to be capable of producing as much as 8,000 kg of cannabis per month in 17 production rooms.
But by the time production started in 2019, with a price tag of well over $100 million, the Canadian cannabis production market was already over capacity with consumer tastes moving rapidly toward the hand-produced craft segment that is everything the Sky facility is not.
While they didn’t talk about it on investor conference calls, it was long rumoured Aurora found out the hard way what legacy growers had known for decades — scaling it up always comes with problems and the more you scale it up, the bigger the problems.
By the time its closure was announced last month, Sky was operating at 25 percent capacity and a victim of its own size, a behemoth unable to respond to constantly shifting consumer demands at a competitive price.
“Sky was originally created… to be one of the largest global, almost completely automated facilities to grow what I would call mid-tier flower,” Aurora CEO Miguel Martin told investors during the last Q3 call. “As the consumer evolved very quickly, bud quality, density, moisture, all of those things [we found] does not lend itself to automation…”
Success, as some say, has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan. Aurora did not respond to interview requests.
Neither did Canopy when asked similar questions about the demise of its equally ambitious Tweed Farms greenhouse facility in southern Ontario or in British Columbia
This is not to pick on either company in particular, it’s just that they are some of the most recent examples of big cannabis plays from the early days of legalization failing to come to fruition.
If Canada’s big players don’t have the answer, who knows what it takes to pull off a high-quality cannabis crop at a competitive price at volumes that could allow national sales?
While technology doesn’t hurt, it turns out the answer may be just old-school experience. And it doesn’t come from any of the big names.
It’s hard to quantify success in the recreational cannabis market fully, but Pure Sunfarms of Delta BC surely comes close.
At Pure Sunfarms, success doesn’t have a thousand fathers but rather about 800 employees operating primarily out of two 1.1 million square foot hybrid greenhouses located across the street from each other.
CEO Mandesh Dosanj says the facility is currently operating at three-quarters capacity, growing into the facility as part of a carefully planned expansion.
“We’ve never laid off an employee,” Dosanjh adds, pointing to 14 straight quarters of profitability for the publicly listed company as another sign it is doing something right.
He knows full well that part of the company’s success lies in the hybrid greenhouse model, where if done right, the higher cost and quality of indoor meets the lower cost and output of outdoor-grown cannabis.
But Dosanjh says a greenhouse is not the only factor, giving credit to the years of produce-growing experience parent company Village Farms brought to the table, long before they saw their first cannabis plant.
“We have hundreds of years of experience, first with fresh-cut flowers in the early days and then we pivoted to produce,” Dosanjh adds. “We put together an incredible team. We knew high-tech greenhouses, but we were smart enough to bring in the legacy folks.”
Dosanjh doesn’t gloat over Aurora’s difficulties but lays clear what he thinks the problems are with it and other ‘Big Canna’ players.
“In the early days, it was all about telling and selling the growth story in order to get to more capital markets, to raise share prices,” he says. “People thought they could build this defensive moat with these massive facilities. I know they ran into significant yield and quality issues where the products they were growing just weren’t worth it.”
But rather than admit they can’t scale it up, Dosanjh says the bigger companies claim inventory issues. “That’s why you see a lot of talk of inventory build-up with these organizations,” he adds.
Jamie D’Alimonte, CEO of Greenway Greenhouse Cannabis Corporation, had no problem dissecting the demise of Aurora Sky.
“I wouldn’t have started with 20 acres,” he says. “And why did they plant it all so fast? The funds were raised; why spend it right away?”
“I don’t fault the early movers for doing what they did, but they didn’t consult with the right people, the proper large-scale growers,” he says. “Cannabis is an expensive crop to grow, lots of labour and regulations. Had they started slowly, maybe Sky could have succeeded.”
D’Alimonte might just be being polite.
His recent success and that of partner and uncle Carl Mastronardi is also born of long experience growing hydroponic produce in a company first established by D’Alimonte’s immigrant grandparents.
Greenway employs a staff of 18 at two separate facilities in Essex County, ON. One facility is dedicated to propagation and the other to flower production and packaging.
The two facilities operate under different licenses and help with plant quarantine. Plants are put through the vegetative cycle at the nursery before transfer to the flower facility and one of its eight smaller growing rooms.
“The plants arrive raring to go,” D’Alimonte adds.
Growing cannabis only for just over a year, Greenway already routinely pulls 200-300 kg of cannabis per room.
D’Alimonte says their success within that facility lies in adopting tactics from the legacy growers who have long found better yields by stringing together a bunch of smaller rooms rather than running one big one.
“We’ve chosen to do that, to mimic the small-scale approach,” he adds.
And you can only take away so much of the human touch.
“Cannabis plants can’t be moved around, and there’s only so much that can be automated,” he declares. “The only automation we see is in the back end and packaging.”
The facility also includes independently controlled rooms and backup systems for just about everything.
“When growing crops you have to make sure your systems are all in place and are reliable,” D’Alimonte says. “Your location, your staff, all have to be top notch. Plants have needs that cannot be denied.”
Sustainable growth has been one of the hallmarks of the parent company’s decades-long success, he adds, but demand for their product has them already planning to scale up to two more 50,000 sq. ft. facilities.
As a final lesson, Pure Sunfarms’ Dosanjh says to understand your market as it is, not as you want it to be.
“The consumer is the heart of the market. We went to the heart of the market to understand the cannabis consumer as they are today,” he explains.
“In that context, we didn’t build a business upon the future; we built it on the regs currently in play, unlike a lot of companies who are asking government to change the rules to save their business.”
What happens when the elephant in the room is the room itself?
That question for investors in Aurora Cannabis was finally answered with news this last quarter that its massive state-of-the-art Sky greenhouse outside Edmonton would be shuttered in the fall.
Announced with great fanfare in 2018, the 800,000 sq. foot Sky facility was designed to be as close to automated as you can get, estimated to be capable of producing as much as 8,000 kg of cannabis per month in 17 production rooms.
But by the time production started in 2019, with a price tag of well over $100 million, the Canadian cannabis production market was already over capacity with consumer tastes moving rapidly toward the hand-produced craft segment that is everything the Sky facility is not.
While they didn’t talk about it on investor conference calls, it was long rumoured Aurora found out the hard way what legacy growers had known for decades — scaling it up always comes with problems and the more you scale it up, the bigger the problems.
By the time its closure was announced last month, Sky was operating at 25 percent capacity and a victim of its own size, a behemoth unable to respond to constantly shifting consumer demands at a competitive price.
“Sky was originally created… to be one of the largest global, almost completely automated facilities to grow what I would call mid-tier flower,” Aurora CEO Miguel Martin told investors during the last Q3 call. “As the consumer evolved very quickly, bud quality, density, moisture, all of those things [we found] does not lend itself to automation…”
Success, as some say, has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan. Aurora did not respond to interview requests.
Neither did Canopy when asked similar questions about the demise of its equally ambitious Tweed Farms greenhouse facility in southern Ontario or in British Columbia.
This is not to pick on either company in particular, it’s just that they are some of the most recent examples of big cannabis plays from the early days of legalization failing to come to fruition.
If Canada’s big players don’t have the answer, who knows what it takes to pull off a high-quality cannabis crop at a competitive price at volumes that could allow national sales?
While technology doesn’t hurt, it turns out the answer may be just old-school experience. And it doesn’t come from any of the big names.
It’s hard to quantify success in the recreational cannabis market fully, but Pure Sunfarms of Delta BC surely comes close.
At Pure Sunfarms, success doesn’t have a thousand fathers but rather about 800 employees operating primarily out of two 1.1 million square foot hybrid greenhouses located across the street from each other.
CEO Mandesh Dosanj says the facility is currently operating at three-quarters capacity, growing into the facility as part of a carefully planned expansion.
“We’ve never laid off an employee,” Dosanjh adds, pointing to 14 straight quarters of profitability for the publicly listed company as another sign it is doing something right.
He knows full well that part of the company’s success lies in the hybrid greenhouse model, where if done right, the higher cost and quality of indoor meets the lower cost and output of outdoor-grown cannabis.
But Dosanjh says a greenhouse is not the only factor, giving credit to the years of produce-growing experience parent company Village Farms brought to the table, long before they saw their first cannabis plant.
“We have hundreds of years of experience, first with fresh-cut flowers in the early days and then we pivoted to produce,” Dosanjh adds. “We put together an incredible team. We knew high-tech greenhouses, but we were smart enough to bring in the legacy folks.”
Dosanjh doesn’t gloat over Aurora’s difficulties but lays clear what he thinks the problems are with it and other ‘Big Canna’ players.
“In the early days, it was all about telling and selling the growth story in order to get to more capital markets, to raise share prices,” he says. “People thought they could build this defensive moat with these massive facilities. I know they ran into significant yield and quality issues where the products they were growing just weren’t worth it.”
But rather than admit they can’t scale it up, Dosanjh says the bigger companies claim inventory issues. “That’s why you see a lot of talk of inventory build-up with these organizations,” he adds.
Jamie D’Alimonte, CEO of Greenway Greenhouse Cannabis Corporation, had no problem dissecting the demise of Aurora Sky.
“I wouldn’t have started with 20 acres,” he says. “And why did they plant it all so fast? The funds were raised; why spend it right away?”
“I don’t fault the early movers for doing what they did, but they didn’t consult with the right people, the proper large-scale growers,” he says. “Cannabis is an expensive crop to grow, lots of labour and regulations. Had they started slowly, maybe Sky could have succeeded.”
D’Alimonte might just be being polite.
His recent success and that of partner and uncle Carl Mastronardi is also born of long experience growing hydroponic produce in a company first established by D’Alimonte’s immigrant grandparents.
Greenway employs a staff of 18 at two separate facilities in Essex County, ON. One facility is dedicated to propagation and the other to flower production and packaging.
The two facilities operate under different licenses and help with plant quarantine. Plants are put through the vegetative cycle at the nursery before transfer to the flower facility and one of its eight smaller growing rooms.
“The plants arrive raring to go,” D’Alimonte adds.
Growing cannabis only for just over a year, Greenway already routinely pulls 200-300 kg of cannabis per room.
D’Alimonte says their success within that facility lies in adopting tactics from the legacy growers who have long found better yields by stringing together a bunch of smaller rooms rather than running one big one.
“We’ve chosen to do that, to mimic the small-scale approach,” he adds.
And you can only take away so much of the human touch.
“Cannabis plants can’t be moved around, and there’s only so much that can be automated,” he declares. “The only automation we see is in the back end and packaging.”
The facility also includes independently controlled rooms and backup systems for just about everything.
“When growing crops you have to make sure your systems are all in place and are reliable,” D’Alimonte says. “Your location, your staff, all have to be top notch. Plants have needs that cannot be denied.”
Sustainable growth has been one of the hallmarks of the parent company’s decades-long success, he adds, but demand for their product has them already planning to scale up to two more 50,000 sq. ft. facilities.
As a final lesson, Pure Sunfarms’ Dosanjh says to understand your market as it is, not as you want it to be.
“The consumer is the heart of the market. We went to the heart of the market to understand the cannabis consumer as they are today,” he explains.
“In that context, we didn’t build a business upon the future; we built it on the regs currently in play, unlike a lot of companies who are asking government to change the rules to save their business.”
Amid stagnating growth in some older state cannabis markets, U.S. companies are looking to Canada’s hotly contested industry for future growth.
Executives from technology and events firms as well as beverage and edibles businesses told Bonno they find Canada’s centrally regulated market appealing.
The growth prospects also are attractive.
According to New York-based Cantor Fitzgerald, Canada’s recreational cannabis market grew 21% in the second quarter on a year-over-year basis, while the financial services firm estimates U.S. growth will be just 1% during the same period.
The U.S. companies are wading into Canada cautiously by leveraging relatively cheap assets, partnerships and licensing arrangements.
By contrast, U.S. multistate operators – for now – are steering clear of Canada’s falling cannabis prices, and a market awash in inventory.
Bonno story showcases a number of U.S. companies that have headed north, and speaks with executives to get their reasons for doing so.
B.C. CANNABIS CONSUMERS NOW FREE TO USE PRIVATE DELIVERY SERVICES
BONNOJULY 11, 2022
B.C.’s cannabis consumers are now free to use private delivery services in the province. The government-owned B.C. Cannabis Stores have been able to do this since legalization. The B.C. government extended this freedom to private stores last year. But employees of the retailer provided the delivery service.
As of July 8, couriers can deliver recreational cannabis from a private retailer through the mail or private delivery.
A Long-Time Coming
According to cannabis stakeholders in the province, this move has been a long-time coming. Before the rule change, the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch held a monopoly on online sales and delivery.
“Since federal legalization of non-medical cannabis, we have continued to look for ways to support the cannabis industry in our province while providing safe and accessible options for British Columbians,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
He added: “Expanding delivery-service options not only builds equality within the market, it also gives consumers one more reason to buy legal instead of illicit.”
New Cannabis Study: Raison D’état?
B.C. Cannabis Consumers Now Free to Use Private Delivery Services
Around the same time the B.C. government announced that cannabis consumers are free to use private delivery services, the government released a new cannabis study. They claim to show concerning levels of pesticides used by legacy market farms. (Never mind the number of times Health Canada has discovered “regulated” LPs using pesticides).
Farnworth says the study is another reason to make legal, regulated cannabis easier. Not mentioning that one of the “concerns” in the study is that most illicit vape products had high concentrations of THC. As if going beyond the legal THC cap is a negative thing. In reality, it’s the legal limits on THC that are sending many to the legacy market.
The study’s limited selection of legacy market cannabis doesn’t help flesh out its thesis that “illicit cannabis” is somehow more dangerous than “regulated cannabis.” Furthermore, because the government seized the samples from illicit retailers, we have no information on who produced the cannabis. Or how they produced it, what kind of environment it was grown in, or whether contamination of the products occurred somewhere down the supply chain and not necessarily on the farm.
B.C. Cannabis Consumers Now Free to Use Private Delivery Services
B.C. cannabis consumers are now free to use private delivery services. But what about private testing services? What about private growers who the federal government doesn’t regulate?
The study Farnworth gloats over says, “Cannabis products within the legal, regulated system must be tested and pass quality specifications, and if contaminants are found licensed producers are required to address the issue.”
But history shows they “address the issue” by hiding pesticides in a ceiling tile. At the same time, some pencil-pusher from Health Canada walks around like they know what they’re doing.
B.C. cannabis consumers are now free to use private delivery services. But when will they be free to use a private, regulatory service?
The study concludes: “unless a consumer is purchasing from a legal and regulated source there is no mechanism or oversight protecting the consumer from false and misleading product claims and potentially harmful contaminants.”
But this is false. Government bureaucracy is no kind of oversight. They are not an effective mechanism for protecting consumers. Often, the process is “captured” by lobbying interests. That’s precisely how cannabis legalization in Canada ended up with large corporate conglomerates while a majority of BC Bud remains illegal.
B.C. cannabis consumers are now free to use private delivery services. But that’s like letting your dog off-leash in your backyard. That should have always been OK. It’s time to take your dog to the park and let him run around with the other dogs. Just like it’s time for B.C. to roll back state control and let BC Bud provide Canadians with safe, clean, quality cannabis.
Great management team!
CEO paid 63 millions to burn 5 billions.
Who want to retire when pay is that good?
From boom to gloom.
Get them cheap shares while they last happy!
Aurora laid off 12% of its workforce in June. Cannabis companies across Canada have been bleeding jobs, but where are all the weed workers going?
By Matt Mernagh
The hiring spree is over.
The cannabis industry’s impressive employment gains, once predicted to be rural Canada’s employment job saviour, have turned to depressing job losses.
Production workers’ job security has eroded as facility-after-facility closed.
Originally it was blamed on the pandemic, not product over-saturation or product people didn’t want.
Production and market share reduced, large licensed producers slimmed their payrolls further by eliminating head office jobs, too.
Quarterly reports from Canada’s largest producers often contain personnel restructuring announcements, which is investor language for layoffs.
In June alone, Aurora announced it was laying off 12% of its workforce, on top of a previously announced 13%, Hexo continued to cut payroll, laying off an additional 450 people, and The Flowr Corporation pink slipped 40% of their employees.
In April, Canopy eliminated a tenth of its workforce, including closing its Environmental, Social and Governance department, which revealed in their inaugural report, “In 2020, our total employee turnover rate was 67%. Involuntary turnover was 47%.”
Though the job requires following detailed Standard Operating Procedures, Statistics Canada classifies production workers as agriculture workers. The federal agency doesn’t track employment in the agriculture sector, and budtenders are lumped into the same category as beer and wine retail workers.
Their data for salary employees looked odd, and the agency footnote for April 2022 notes the data quality is graded a lowly C.
If layoffs weren’t revealed during quarterly announcements, the public would have no idea there’s significant job loss happening.
Highly talented workforce ‘packing it in’
“It’s really disheartening to see. There’s a human toll to all these announcements,” says NORML Canada executive Jennawae McLean, who is also a retail store owner in Kingston, Ont.
“All licensed producers are in austerity mode. They are all trying to save, and the budget for staff has become much less. The budget for staffing has become a lot less because they’re limited in where they can save.”
With less opportunities, experienced people are opting to put their cannabis professional careers behind them.
“It’s a highly talented workforce, and people are just packing it. Including two of my colleagues at NORML Canada. The industry is not easy for anyone right now. Most people are packing it in because it’s so disheartening. I hope it’s not a permanent pack in, there will be rewarding jobs, but right now they are few and far between,” McLean explains.
Ryan Lee
@ChimeraGenetics
·
19h
Support your local retail outlet & micro growers. Feed families, not fill the pockets of corporate investors who never gave a damn about this plant or our culture.
Quote Tweet
Jennessa K.
@jennessa_k
· 20h
Just your friendly Thursday reminder to shop local. Support families, don’t fill greedy corporate pockets and pump stock prices.
Sigh.
Matt Lamers ????
@matt_lamers
·
19m
Tilray, Canopy & Hexo have the lowest avg. price of cannabis flower in ???? at $4.40
MARKET SHARE COMPARED TO AVG $/G
Tilray
2Q2020—19%
2Q2021—15%
2Q2022—7.5%
Avg $/g: -33.4%
Canopy
2Q20—14.3%
2Q21—16%
2Q22—7.3%
Avg $/g: -43.5%
Hexo
2Q20—14%
2Q21—10.7%
2Q22—7.2%
Avg $/g: -22.7%
The largest ???? cannabis producers can't compete on quality so they're dropping prices.
CANTOR: "the top 5 Canadian LPs in market share at present have average flower prices below the market average. Organigram is the exception."
"The 'ankle biters' have higher average prices"
?? CANTOR: "...able to confirm our hypothesis that Canadian LPs with above average flower prices per gram are gaining market share compared to companies that are heavily discounting. We infer that ???? consumers are maturing and becoming more attentive to the quality of flower."
It was always about quality and never about scale.
Canada's largest licensed producers, and their financial backers, got it completely wrong. Their thesis on scaled production had more holes in it than a cheese grater.
Result: around $15 billion in losses.
They shure know what they are doing and it shows in every Q.
That is a real plus for the stock market weed...
How to grow bunk.
How to lose billions selling "LEGAL" cannabis.
Hang on to that bag happy and don,t let anybody near it.
Lol...
Jump on them shares before they come down!
You can do it...
Happy, you simply do not know what you are talking about...
I<m calling your BS... Everyone in the legacy market already has a dealer. They will all happily steal from the guy who has put his heart and soul into the genetics but will buy from someone else if they can save a dollar. There is no loyalty in that realm you are so in love with. If there was, they would support each other, crowd fund to get their products to a wide audience and be loyal to those who supplied them all these years.
You are a legacy expert now?
Name one who is not loyal and happily steals from others.
LP would fit that bill.
Legacy is an open book.
More Happy bull crap..."The legacy market still has a chance to get into the wider world"
Please name a legacy duder who wants to be part of your Canada Act.
Crickets...
Yup they know better than to join a doomed market.
"In the future there will be very potent products and very mild products and they will have to be labeled and tested just like you would have to do if you put a family tomato sauce recipe on the market."
The future is now happy, but you do not know it just yet.
Get on with the time please
https://www.bulkbuddy.co/
You are making a fool of yourself.
"Canopy is in a worse position, with investors paying 3.6 times revenue."
licensed producer aurora cannabis
SHORTING AURORA AGAIN
BONNOJULY 6, 2022
In 2018, I suggested shorting Aurora. Bad advice, many thought, on the eve of legalization when licensed producer stocks rose.
But the foundation of Canada’s LP system is flawed. In 2022, this is apparent. You made money if you shorted Aurora before the cannabis bubble popped.
The question is now: is Aurora now worth buying on the dip?
Shorting Aurora Again
Aurora Cannabis is one of the worst-performing stocks out there. When I suggested shorting Aurora the first time, the company had announced the acquisition of MedReleaf for over $2.5 billion.
Today, Aurora’s total market cap isn’t even worth that much. Back then, their value was $7.4-billion. Aurora’s market cap in 2022 is $400 million.
Far from being Canada’s number one supplier of cannabis, they are Canada’s biggest LP loser.
From billions to millions, Aurora has lost well over 95% of its value since 2018, when I first suggest investors short the stock.
(Shorting stock involves selling batches of stock to make a profit, then repurchasing it cheaply when the price goes down.)
Will Aurora crash even further, or is it time to buy cheap in hopes of a bull market in Canadian cannabis?
European Connections & Homegrown Losses
Shorting Aurora Again
Canada’s small population and relatively small cannabis market do not justify a large number of large producers. So, like in 2018, Aurora sells investors on the potential in Europe.
Aurora is one of the few Canadian companies with a licence to grow in Germany. And with Germany likely to legalize it by the end of the year, this could certainly boost the value of Aurora’s shares.
Regardless of when or how Germany legalizes, Aurora still has problems at home. Its infamous “Sky” facility in Alberta closed its doors despite being hyped as a pioneer in cannabis cultivation just a few years ago.
Aurora also announced net losses of $1 billion in its third quarter. The company’s third-quarter financial and operational results saw a 17% sequential decrease in revenue to $50.4 million.
“If you take a look at the top players in Canada, take a look at where their stock prices are compared to where their all-time highs were, and we’re taking a look at losses 99 cents on the dollar,” says Nawan Butt, Portfolio Manager at Purpose Investments.
“It’s all to the determent of the equity holder for the LPs. And I’m surprised more equity holders aren’t appalled at some of the decisions management have taken.”
Of course, equity holders probably are appalled at Aurora, hence why the company is laying off 12% of its workforce on a plan to cut $90 million in costs.
Shorting Aurora Based on Negative Cashflows
The problem for Aurora Cannabis and many other large LPs is that they’ve never had positive cash flow. Governments and media like to promote Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) ratings to determine whether a company is “really” profitable. But this obvious woke progressive nonsense.
All that matters is positive cash flow, which is a problem for Aurora. From last July to March this year, Aurora used $83 million to fund its day-to-day operations. This past June, Aurora raised $172.5 million through offering stock. Investors have every reason to be worried about dilution.
Is it time to short Aurora again? In 2018, Aurora was trading 28 times higher than it should be, considering its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Today, Aurora is trading 1.7 times the revenue it earns from selling cannabis.
Canopy is in a worse position, with investors paying 3.6 times revenue.
German legalization may boost their stock performance as Canadian legalization did. But that boost was short-lived because the company’s fundamentals are too risky.
The fundamentals of Canada’s legalization scheme are unsound. Throw an economic depression into the mix (the consequence of excessively low-interest rates, not the “psychology” of the masses), and it’s a perfect storm.
It’s probably time to be shorting Aurora again.
licensed producer aurora cannabis
SHORTING AURORA AGAIN
BONNOJULY 6, 2022
In 2018, I suggested shorting Aurora. Bad advice, many thought, on the eve of legalization when licensed producer stocks rose.
But the foundation of Canada’s LP system is flawed. In 2022, this is apparent. You made money if you shorted Aurora before the cannabis bubble popped.
The question is now: is Aurora now worth buying on the dip?
Shorting Aurora Again
Aurora Cannabis is one of the worst-performing stocks out there. When I suggested shorting Aurora the first time, the company had announced the acquisition of MedReleaf for over $2.5 billion.
Today, Aurora’s total market cap isn’t even worth that much. Back then, their value was $7.4-billion. Aurora’s market cap in 2022 is $400 million.
Far from being Canada’s number one supplier of cannabis, they are Canada’s biggest LP loser. From billions to millions, Aurora has lost well over 95% of its value since 2018, when I first suggest investors short the stock.
(Shorting stock involves selling batches of stock to make a profit, then repurchasing it cheaply when the price goes down.)
Will Aurora crash even further, or is it time to buy cheap in hopes of a bull market in Canadian cannabis?
European Connections & Homegrown Losses
Shorting Aurora Again
Canada’s small population and relatively small cannabis market do not justify a large number of large producers. So, like in 2018, Aurora sells investors on the potential in Europe. Aurora is one of the few Canadian companies with a licence to grow in Germany.
And with Germany likely to legalize it by the end of the year, this could certainly boost the value of Aurora’s shares.
Regardless of when or how Germany legalizes, Aurora still has problems at home. Its infamous “Sky” facility in Alberta closed its doors despite being hyped as a pioneer in cannabis cultivation just a few years ago.
Aurora also announced net losses of $1 billion in its third quarter. The company’s third-quarter financial and operational results saw a 17% sequential decrease in revenue to $50.4 million.
“If you take a look at the top players in Canada, take a look at where their stock prices are compared to where their all-time highs were, and we’re taking a look at losses 99 cents on the dollar,” says Nawan Butt, Portfolio Manager at Purpose Investments. “It’s all to the determent of the equity holder for the LPs.
And I’m surprised more equity holders aren’t appalled at some of the decisions management have taken.”
Of course, equity holders probably are appalled at Aurora, hence why the company is laying off 12% of its workforce on a plan to cut $90 million in costs.
Shorting Aurora Based on Negative Cashflows
The problem for Aurora Cannabis and many other large LPs is that they’ve never had positive cash flow. Governments and media like to promote Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) ratings to determine whether a company is “really” profitable. But this obvious woke progressive nonsense.
All that matters is positive cash flow, which is a problem for Aurora. From last July to March this year, Aurora used $83 million to fund its day-to-day operations.
This past June, Aurora raised $172.5 million through offering stock. Investors have every reason to be worried about dilution.
Is it time to short Aurora again? In 2018, Aurora was trading 28 times higher than it should be, considering its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Today, Aurora is trading 1.7 times the revenue it earns from selling cannabis.
Canopy is in a worse position, with investors paying 3.6 times revenue.
German legalization may boost their stock performance as Canadian legalization did. But that boost was short-lived because the company’s fundamentals are too risky.
The fundamentals of Canada’s legalization scheme are unsound. Throw an economic depression into the mix (the consequence of excessively low-interest rates, not the “psychology” of the masses), and it’s a perfect storm.
It’s probably time to be shorting Aurora again.
Happy, you have it wrong AGAIN...
It,s the LP,s who do not work together!
Legacy is an open book.
You live under a rock.
He is cute... but he sugarcoat,s it. Besides, he does,nt know the culture.
Wrong guy for D.D. but...
You want D.D.?
You will have to be in talking terms with Legacy.
Or at least read what they post on Reddit, Twitter.
You can also try Googling cannabis on You Tube.