Last Week In Weed Issue 2
Published on December 21st 2020
Welcome to another issue of Last Week in Weed. This week we’ll be looking at the merger of two Canadian cannabis companies, the launch of Monogram by Jay-Z, and an update on the Irish fight to ‘legalise’ cannabis on the Emerald isle.
Rapper Jay-Z announces the launch of Cannabis brand Monogram
First up let’s talk about the rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, who announced the launch of Monogram, a luxury and in my opinion rather gentrified cannabis lifestyle brand that sells $50 prerolls that features a “proprietary roll technique allowing the flower to burn slowly and evenly for multiple sessions,” according to a press release from the brand.
Monogram is produced in partnership with Caliva (CMG Partners Inc) one of California’s largest producers of Cannabis. Caliva, along with another Jay-Z owned company, Roc Nation (the music company Jay-Z started with Live Nation back in 2008) and another Californian cannabis company Left Coast Ventures was part of a multi-million dollar deal by Subversive Capital Acquisition Corp to integrate the brands to create California’s largest cannabis company – TCPO Holding Corps (the Parent company)
The dirt of your shoulders singer joins the newly formed company as “Chief Visionary Officer” where Carter’s role will help guide brand strategy as well as lead the company with a goal of amongst other things to raise $10 million to invest in minority and Black-owned cannabis companies.
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation LLC boasts an impressive roster of well-known artists including Rihanna, DJ Khaled, and Mariah Carey. So expect to see a lot more mainstream musicians promoting cannabis products and becoming brand ambassadors in the coming months and years.
TPCO also announced that it will contribute at least 2% of its net annual income to support social equity initiatives. A little low given the amount of revenue that the holding company is set to make by dominating the Californian cannabis industry.
Tilray and Aphria announce merger
This week it was announced that two Canadian powerhouses are to merge to form Canada’s – and the world’s largest cannabis company. The two companies that are set two conglomerate had a combined profit in excess of 500 million dollars in 2020 – making it now the largest single player in the Canadian game. The deal comes after a similar deal with struggling producer Aurora fell through.
The two companies Aphria and Tilray have arguably made this deal to secure a stronger foothold in the Canadian marketplace but the deal also best positions them for the potential of the United States legalising cannabis at the federal level in the coming years – a move that looks rather likely under a Biden presidency.
One thing that isn’t being discussed all that much is how well this places the newly created venture in Europe. Aphria already has a growing facility in Germany that helps supply 13,000 dispensing pharmacies across Europe and Tilray, you may recall is rumored to of been involved in the handicapping of Portugal’s attempts to “legalise” the cultivation of “medical cannabis” at home in 2018.
Shortly before Portugal announced that it planned to “legalise” “medical cannabis” in July 2018 Tilray announced that it would be building a 250,000 square-foot facility costing $20 million in Cantanhede about 130 miles north of Lisbon.
“Putting our companies together creates the largest medical cannabis business in Europe, and prepares us if one-day legalization happens in the EU,” Aphria Chief Executive Officer Irwin Simon
The facility officially opened in April 2019 and by August of the same year had already secured its first multi-million dollar deal to supply “medical cannabis” to Germany – a sign of things to come.
Tilray has been linked to various campaigns around the world including the push to “legalise” “medical cannabis” in the UK during the summer of 2018. The parent company of Tilray, Privateer holdings are linked to various British cannabis campaigns and reform movements including the conservative think-tank Volteface.
“There’s a good chance that two years from now, five to six countries in Europe will legalize cannabis for adult use,” Tilray CEO Brendan Kennedy
Volteface, which is run by Steve Moore and financed by Paul Birch also has close links to the CMC, the ACI, End our Pain, and Families4acess. The organisation is arguably responsible for “legalising” “medical cannabis” in the UK in November 2018 following a sustained and well-executed media campaign.
The campaign fronted by Charlotte Cauldwell after she announced that it was a Tilray cannabis-based medicine that “saved her son’s life” was coincidentally and rather fortuitously timed given that in July 2018 Tilray became the first cannabis company to offer an IPO on the NASDAQ (the US stock market) just a few weeks after announcing that the “medical cannabis” company would be moving into the “recreational” market in Canada by launching a subsidiary company called High Park.
The initial float price was $17 dollars a share but it quickly gained traction in tandem with the British campaign to “legalise” “medical cannabis” before peaking in September 2018 at $214 a share just before the new legislation came in to effect in the UK.
So with the global cannabis market set to be worth an eye-watering $147 Billion by 2027 you can expect to see a lot more of this kind of thing in the coming years.
The latest news from the Emerald isle
Finally, we’ll be looking at the news coming out of Ireland that the Health Minister has announced that “cannabis patients” who have been receiving their Dutch prescriptions for “medical cannabis” via the temporary supply system set up to assist during the Covid-19 pandemic is to be made permanent.
“Medical cannabis” in Ireland isn’t legal, nor is it really illegal at the moment. In November 2016 the Irish Minister for Health asked the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) to provide scientific advice on the potential therapeutic properties of cannabis.
The result was the publication of Cannabis for Medical Use – A Scientific Review in January 2017. After the review, an Expert Reference Group was established by the health minister to advise on the development of a Medical Cannabis Access Programme.
The group developed clinical guidelines for the prescribing of cannabis-based medications and approved CBMP’s in the treatment of spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, and treatment-resistant epilepsy.
There were various delays in the roll-out of the project but on 26th June 2019, the Minister for Health finally signed legislation to allow for the operation of the Medical Cannabis Access Program (MCAP) on a pilot basis for five years.
A few months later two new products were approved and registered for use under the MCAP. The two cannabis preparations were Aurora’s High CBD Oil Drops and MGC Pharmaceuticals CannEpil joining the already approved GW Pharmaceutical’s Sativex. The end of 2019 also saw the approval of Tilray’s 10:10 oil for use as part of the MCAP – with more expected to be added throughout the life of the 5-year pilot program.
The other big news from our Irish neighbours is that low-level personal possession of cannabis is no longer going to be prosecuted. Cannabis possession will instead now be added to the 2006 Adult Cautioning System. The inclusion of cannabis into this system means that individuals caught in possession of cannabis will face a caution and not prosecution for their first offense.
The system helps individuals avoid prosecution for possession, however, you will still be taken to the station and need to acknowledge in writing that you agree to accept the caution. A caution under the system should only be applied once and will remain visible to the authorities in the event of any further criminal investigations or charges.
Ireland has some amazing advocates and activists fighting to relegalise cannabis and these small steps are evidence of their tireless tenacity and dogged determination. If there are any news stories or particular topics that you’d like us to focus a blog on then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Written by Simpa for TheSimpaLife.com
