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Marijuana Company of America $MCOA Announces the Official Launch of “ASONTV” hempSMART(TM) TV Commercial $AERO $CBDS $CGRW $APH.ca $GBLX $ACG $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:24 AM on Tuesday, November 13th, 2018

15233 mcoa

  • Announced the official launch of its television commercial ad campaign in conjunction with the Company’s strategic partner, asseenontv.pro (ASONTV), to market its hempSMART™ Full Spectrum Pet Drops.
  • New campaign will market the Company’s pet product to direct consumers via a 60 second TV advertising campaign for the duration of the next six weeks during the 2018 holiday season
  • Customers interested in purchasing the product or viewing the new commercial can do so by visiting www.hempsmartpetdrops.com.

Escondido, California–(November 13, 2018) – MARIJUANA COMPANY OF AMERICA INC. (OTC Pink: MCOA) (“MCOA” or the “Company“), an innovative hemp and cannabis corporation, is pleased to announce the official launch of its television commercial ad campaign in conjunction with the Company’s strategic partner, asseenontv.pro (ASONTV), to market its hempSMART™ Full Spectrum Pet Drops.

The new campaign will market the Company’s pet product to direct consumers via a 60 second TV advertising campaign for the duration of the next six weeks during the 2018 holiday season. Customers interested in purchasing the product or viewing the new commercial can do so by visiting www.hempsmartpetdrops.com.

Donald Steinberg, CEO of MCOA, stated, “Our Company has prepared diligently for the expected influx of orders in relation to the launch of our commercial ad campaign to promote our hemp derived CBD pet product. Our CBD product brand hempSMART will continue our affiliate marketing program in combination with our direct sales ad campaign during Q4 which, the Company expects to be our best quarter to date.”

About Marijuana Company of America, Inc.

MCOA is a corporation which participates in: (1) product research and development of legal hemp-based consumer products under the brand name “hempSMART™”, that targets general health and well-being; (2) an affiliate marketing program to promote and sell its legal hemp-based consumer products containing CBD; (3) leasing of real property to separate business entities engaged in the growth and sale of cannabis in those states and jurisdictions where cannabis has been legalized and properly regulated for medicinal and recreations use; and, (4) the expansion of its business into ancillary areas of the legalized cannabis and hemp industry, as the legalized markets and opportunities in this segment mature and develop.

About Our hempSMART Products Containing CBD

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not recognized CBD as a safe and effective drug for any indication. Our products containing CBD derived from industrial hemp are not marketed or sold based upon claims that their use is safe and effective treatment for any medical condition as drugs or dietary supplements subject to the FDA’s juridiction.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains “forward-looking statements” which are not purely historical and may include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the development, costs and results of new business opportunities and words such as “anticipate”, “seek”, intend”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “plan”, or similar phrases may be deemed “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects, the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company’s reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based products. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-12G, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, please visit www.sec.gov.

For more information, please visit the Company’s websites at:

MarijuanaCompanyofAmerica.com
hempSMART.com
NetworkNewsWires/MCOA

Corporate Communications Contact:
NetworkNewsWire (NNW)
New York, New York
www.NetworkNewsWire.com
212.418.1217 Office
[email protected]

#Cannabis industry says it needs more approved growers to meet Canadian demand $BOG.ca $NBUD.ca $MCOA

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:09 AM on Monday, November 12th, 2018

  • More fully-licensed cannabis growers and cultivation space are needed to meet a voracious demand for legal marijuana, a spokesman for the industry said last week.
  • That means more licences for both producers and their grow areas need to be issued by Health Canada, said Allan Rewak, executive director of the Cannabis Council of Canada.
  • “Absolutely, we need more licensed producers, we need Health Canada to approve more production sites,” said Rewak, adding his group represents 85 per cent of the legal cultivation space in Canada.

Dean Pilling/Postmedia

More fully-licensed cannabis growers and cultivation space are needed to meet a voracious demand for legal marijuana, a spokesman for the industry said last week.

That means more licences for both producers and their grow areas need to be issued by Health Canada, said Allan Rewak, executive director of the Cannabis Council of Canada.

“Absolutely, we need more licensed producers, we need Health Canada to approve more production sites,” said Rewak, adding his group represents 85 per cent of the legal cultivation space in Canada.

“We’re talking to them every day.”

Private cannabis retailers in Alberta and across the country say the supply of product is often proving inadequate, with some insisting that shortage is preventing them from opening their stores a few weeks after the drug became recreationally legal on Oct. 17.

Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, the provincial commission that distributes to private shops and sells pot online, echoes those sentiments.

On Friday, 72 of its 90 varieties of marijuana were listed as out of stock, while the number of total varieties had fallen by 100 from the day before.

Commission officials say they’ve canvassed all licensed producers in the country for more supply, but have been told there’s none to spare.

That bottleneck can be traced back to the federal government’s pace in approving producers’ ability to market their harvests, said AGLC spokeswoman Kaleigh Miller.

“There’s a lot of producers in the hopper waiting for a federal licence to sell,” said Miller.

Health Canada lists 132 producers as licensed to cultivate — nine in Alberta — though 78 of those have sales permits, which can take months to acquire.

Alberta has signed up 15 licensed producers to supply its market, though not all are making deliveries yet.

Those suppliers have reported inventory and shipped goods that should be enough to meet market requirements, said Health Canada spokesman Andre Gagnon.

“There will remain, in aggregate, more than enough supply of dried cannabis and cannabis oils to meet Canadian legal demand,” he said in a statement.

“The challenge will continue to be for licensed processors to work with distributors and retailers to process, package existing inventory and ship final products to meet consumer demand.”

In the past 16 months, he said, 89 companies were issued production licences and 46 granted sales permits, while growing space has expanded from two million to 13 million square feet.

Earlier this year, Postmedia reported that Health Canada was rejecting three licence applications for every one it approved, over concerns some of those requesting them had been involved in the black market.

Health Canada officials have said they’ve hired 300 additional staff to assess applications.

The Cannabis Council of Canada’s Rewak said he’s confident federal officials are working diligently to break the logjam.

“They’re working hard to migrate licences, no one is working against anybody else,” he said.

He also said the industry is working round the clock to meet demand, adding supply is making it to distributors and retailers.

“We’re not out of cannabis, it’s not like shelves are bare,” he said.

Millions of square feet of production capacity is being brought on line, which should help ease or erase supply gaps, said Rewak.

“In the weeks and months to come, it will normalize . . . we won’t see a completely rationalized market until the new year,” he said.

“We’ve got some great licensed producers at the final stages of approval.”

And he agrees with Health Canada that logistical hiccups, such as those in product packaging, are a factor in supply problems.

Included among those are difficulties in quickly affixing federal excise stamps to packaging, he said.

Another challenge has been the lack of data on cannabis demand, a realm shrouded in prohibition for 95 years, said Rewak.

“At the end of the day, there was no baseline to compare it to,” he said.

Overall, he said the system has worked reasonably well and expects it will eventually be proven a success.

Some estimates place the annual demand for cannabis at 800,000 kilograms in a market that could produce $6 billion in revenues.

Source: https://calgaryherald.com/cannabis/cannabis-business/cannabis-industry-says-it-needs-more-approved-growers-to-meet-canadian-demand

Dry Spell: Canada Runs Low on Legal #Marijuana Just Weeks After Its Approval $BOG.ca $NBUD.ca $MCOA $ACG.ca $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:25 AM on Thursday, November 8th, 2018

  • Canada is running low on legal pot three weeks after the government approved the use of recreational marijuana, a shortage that is sending some frustrated consumers back to the black market
  • At least three provinces — Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick — are facing a dearth of legal marijuana and two of them have seen outlets selling cannabis temporarily shut down for lack of supply.
  • “We need more weed!” said Trevor Tobin, who teamed up with his mother to open a marijuana retailer called High North in Labrador City, Newfoundland, a small mining town near the Quebec border.

MONTREAL — Canada is running low on legal pot three weeks after the government approved the use of recreational marijuana, a shortage that is sending some frustrated consumers back to the black market.

At least three provinces — Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick — are facing a dearth of legal marijuana and two of them have seen outlets selling cannabis temporarily shut down for lack of supply.

“We need more weed!” said Trevor Tobin, who teamed up with his mother to open a marijuana retailer called High North in Labrador City, Newfoundland, a small mining town near the Quebec border. He said his suppliers did not grow enough plants and don’t have enough packaging equipment.

“It is the law of supply and demand,” Mr. Tobin said.

The shortage threatens to undermine a major aim of legalization: to tame an illegal marijuana trade estimated at about 5.3 billion Canadian dollars annually. Angry consumers across the country say they are returning to their illegal dealers. In Montreal, several pot smokers said their illegal dealers were taking advantage of the shortage by hawking home delivery services and lowering prices.

Retailers, consumers and the producers themselves say they are exasperated by the shortage, which is being blamed at least partly on the unexpected explosion of demand for government-approved marijuana and the slow pace at which the federal government has licensed cannabis producers.

Of the 132 producers approved by the government to supply marijuana to retailers, 78 have received sales licenses, according to Health Canada, the government department responsible for public health.

Breaking big stories requires support.

“We are building a new legal industry that wasn’t there three weeks ago, and we knew there would be problems,” said Mathieu Gaudreault, a spokesman for Quebec’s cannabis agency. He said demand had outstripped supply, while licensed producers had overestimated their capacity.

Bags of cannabis before being divided for sale at a dispensary in British Columbia.CreditAlana Paterson for The New York Times

“Producers can add more people to try and meet demand,” Mr. Gaudreault said. “But that won’t make the plants grow any faster.”

On Monday, New Brunswick became the latest province to confront a shortage as Cannabis NB, the provincial government agency charged with selling marijuana, temporarily closed half of its 20 stores, citing a production bottleneck. After about 20 percent of its first order was delivered, it said it was waiting for more marijuana deliveries to help plug the gap.

That followed the decision by Quebec’s provincial cannabis agency to shutter its 12 cannabis outlets three days a week until the supply can be replenished.

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In Ontario, some frustrated pot smokers say they have returned to their illegal dealers. The Ontario Cannabis Store, the government retailer, received 150,000 orders in its first week of business and has been struggling to keep up with soaring demand. The problems have been exacerbated by a postal strike.

“The government is just feeding the black market and our customers are going there,” said Mr. Tobin, the shopkeeper. “We are called High North. But legal weed is in such short supply that no one is getting high on it.”

Mr. Tobin said that after opening the store on Oct. 17, the day of legalization, his entire marijuana supply sold out in four hours. Among the items flying off the shelves were a potent sativa strain that gives people a “creative and social buzz,” and pre-rolled joints, he said.

After waiting two weeks to get a new cannabis shipment, he said he had been forced to shutter the store for a week. He said he and his mother had invested about 100,000 Canadian dollars in the shop and were struggling to pay their bills.

His suppliers, who are licensed by the provincial government, had told him that they had underestimated demand. The store, which has now reopened, is trying to scrape by with the sales of paraphernalia like bongs and rolling papers. But Mr. Tobin said it was not enough for the business to be profitable.

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His mother, Brenda Tobin, added that demand for government cannabis had surpassed expectations, in part because of the novelty but also because consumers were drawn by government marijuana being strictly regulated and free from contaminants found in some street marijuana.

Image

Clones from cuttings being dipped in a rooting powder to stimulate growth at Pure Sunfarms.CreditAlana Paterson for The New York Times

“People know what they are getting, and they like that,” she said.

André Gagnon, a spokesman for Health Canada, which is regulating the industry, said that Oct. 17 “marked the end of nearly a century of criminal prohibition of cannabis and the launch of an entirely new regulated industry in our country.”

“As with any new industry where there is considerable consumer demand, we expect there may be periods where inventories of some products run low or, in some cases, run out,” he said in a statement.

Given that marijuana had been illegal for so long, he added, the government didn’t have a reliable benchmark to know which products would be in high demand or to be able to estimate the demand level.

Producers, for their part, say that mastering a new industry invariably means a steep learning curve.

In the run-up to legalization, Aphria, a cannabis producer in Ontario, said it had been forced to dispose of 13,642 plants after a lack of qualified local labor hobbled its harvesting. Vic Neufeld, the company’s chief executive, predicted in October that there would be shortages and that the problem would improve when consumer demand was better understood.

“It’s like trying to merge a five-lane highway into a one-lane country road,“ he said. “It’s tough to get everything through the bottleneck on a timely basis.”

Mandesh Dosanjh, chief executive of Pure Sunfarms, a licensed cannabis producer based in British Columbia, said that shortages were not surprising given that producers were grappling with challenges such as mastering the growing of cannabis on a large scale, creating new supply chains across different provinces and allowing for rigorous and time-consuming inspections by Health Canada inspectors.

“It’s early days,” he said. “It’s hard to find know-how in an industry that was prohibited.”

Adam Greenblatt, a spokesman for Canopy Growth, one of the largest cannabis producers in the country, said the company was still building greenhouses in British Columbia, as it sought to accommodate a burgeoning market. Small things such as running out of the glue for the excise tax stamps required on every package of cannabis were causing some producers to have bottlenecks.

“Everyone is doing their best to meet demand,” he said. “Who would’ve thought that weed would be this popular?”

The Pure Sunfarms cultivation facility in VancouverCreditCreditAlana Paterson for The New York

Times
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/world/canada/canada-marijuana-shortage.html

#Weed Wins on Election Day. So What Comes Next? $BOG.ca $NBUD.ca $MCOA $APPB$AERO $CBDS $CGRW $APH.ca $GBLX $ACG $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:21 AM on Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

  • Michigan voted to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, while Utah and Missouri legalized it for medical use, according to projections made late Tuesday night. (A recreational measure in North Dakota failed, though medical cannabis remains legal there.)
  • They join 31 other states that have already gone the medical route, and nine others that have gone fully recreational
  • That’s a win for the citizens of these states—cannabis is far and away safer than alcohol and comes with a range of proven medical benefits, and still more that researchers are exploring

And so a few more dominoes fall. Michigan voted to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, while Utah and Missouri legalized it for medical use, according to projections made late Tuesday night. (A recreational measure in North Dakota failed, though medical cannabis remains legal there.) They join 31 other states that have already gone the medical route, and nine others that have gone fully recreational.

That’s a win for the citizens of these states—cannabis is far and away safer than alcohol and comes with a range of proven medical benefits, and still more that researchers are exploring. But it also may be a win for cannabis nationwide: The more states that legalize cannabis, the likelier it is that federal prohibition will topple soon.

“Momentum is gaining for change in Congress to allow states to determine their own marijuana policies,” says Morgan Fox, media relations director at the National Cannabis Industry Association. “Two thirds of the country wants marijuana to be legal, and politicians are ignoring that at their peril.”

This midterm election’s outcome is relevant to more than just the end game of dissolving the federal prohibition of cannabis. The momentum could also help the states that have already voted to legalize the drug but remain hamstrung by federal regulation. Over the summer, for instance, the Senate Appropriations Committee torpedoed an amendment that would have allowed banks to work with cannabis companies. This, of course, is a major headache for the industry: If a cultivator or distributor or dispensary can’t find a bank to work with, it’s kinda hard to do business.

States where marijuana is legal are also currently blocked from helping veterans gain better access to cannabis. In September, Congress stripped another amendment that would have allowed physicians affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs to recommend medical marijuana in states where it’s already legal.

So, the theory is that with more states voting to legalize, that attitude would trickle up to their representatives in Washington. And one particularly tall hurdle just fell. Republican Pete Sessions of Texas, the chairman of the House Rules Committee who’s been blocking votes on cannabis amendments, just lost to Democratic challenger Colin Allred. How serious is Allred about medical marijuana? It’s telling that he called Sessions out on the veterans amendment.

But then again, the cannabis momentum isn’t coming from politicians, but from the people. “One of the interesting political dynamics of cannabis legalization is that it’s happening in almost every state by ballot initiative,” says Ryan Stoa, author of the book Craft Weed: Family Farming and the Future of the Marijuana Industry. “Meaning, it’s not as if legislators are reading the tea leaves.”

Meaning, maybe we’re pinning too much hope on politicians to push for the federal reform their voters want. “For whatever reason, there still seems to be a lot of hesitation on behalf of politicians, even in the face of strong public support for legalization,” Stoa says.

It’s in a state’s best interest, though, to have cannabis legalized federally, because the economics of cannabis is nutso. Historically, California has provided perhaps three quarters of the domestically grown cannabis in the United States. That’s been over the black market, of course. But even though California has gone recreationally legal, that black market persists, both in-state (high taxes mean some patients skip the legal market) and across the country. Cultivators are “producing more supply than consumers are demanding in the state of California, which means a lot of that supply is going out of state on the black market,” says Stoa.

When a state goes legal, the cannabis sold in-state must be produced in-state (the feds don’t like interstate cannabis markets, for obvious reasons). But legalizing comes with severe growing pains. Small California growers, for instance, are buckling under the weight of new regulations meant to protect the environment and consumers. It’s mighty tempting, then, to skip selling to distributors (which in turn safety-test the product) and instead go black market and sell it all themselves out of state.

“The black market is thriving, and it’s going to continue to thrive,” says Swami Chaitanya, a (legal) grower in California’s legendary Mendocino County. “And the fact is that when it goes legal in those other states, then all of the persecution tends to drop down a level, until I imagine more black market will go to those states that are now legal.”

The fragmentation of the market could be especially acute in states that follow a similar, highly regulated legalization path as California, but that don’t have massive-scale local production of cannabis. Nevada had that problem, same with Colorado. But shortages would be less of a problem in the first place if cannabis were legal federally and producers could sell their products legitimately across state lines.

How Michigan, Utah, and Missouri settle into legal cannabis is to be seen, as is the pace with which Congress gets around to federal legalization. But a bit of bright news: we’ve got fresh faces. “With the new Congress,” says Chaitanya, “it’s almost a question of not so much, does it get legalized in most states, but are the congressional people elected going to be pro-cannabis?”

For the sake of their constituents, economies, prison systems, and the country in general, let’s hope so.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/weed-wins-on-election-day-so-what-comes-next/?mbid=social_twitter

Marijuana Company of America’s $MCOA #hempSMART (TM) Brand Announces Strategic Partnership with “As Seen on TV” to Launch Commercial Ad Campaign $AERO $CBDS $CGRW $APH.ca $GBLX $ACG $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:28 AM on Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

15233 mcoa

  • Wholly owned subsidiary, hempSMART™, is launching a direct response television ad campaign in a strategic partnership with asseenontv.pro (ASONTV)
  • In early November 2018, ASONTV and hempSMART will release a television commercial campaign promoting the Company’s hempSMART Full Spectrum Pet Drops, formulated with 250mg of non-psychoactive hemp derived Cannabidiol (CBD) oil, on major cable networks in select regions across the United States.
  • 60 second TV ad campaign will run for 6 weeks from its starting date with a total of 300 different featured advertisement spots

Escondido, California–(November 6, 2018) – MARIJUANA COMPANY OF AMERICA INC. (“MCOA” or the “Company“) (OTC Pink: MCOA), an innovative hemp and cannabis corporation, is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, hempSMART™, is launching a direct response television ad campaign in a strategic partnership with asseenontv.pro (ASONTV).

In early November 2018, ASONTV and hempSMART will release a television commercial campaign promoting the Company’s hempSMART Full Spectrum Pet Drops, formulated with 250mg of non-psychoactive hemp derived Cannabidiol (CBD) oil, on major cable networks in select regions across the United States. The 60 second TV ad campaign will run for 6 weeks from its starting date with a total of 300 different featured advertisement spots.

The ad campaign will promote hempSMART’s Pet Drops as an all-natural alternative for pet owners to traditional products in the market place. The Company anticipates that the increased attention gained from the commercial ad campaign could drive more customers to the other products featured under the hempSMART CBD product brand.

Donald Steinberg states, “As our hempSMART brand continues to grow, MCOA will continue to search for and utilize new partnerships that will uniquely market our incredible collection of all-natural CBD product formulations. We feel that our strategic partnership with ASONTV is an important milestone for the Company that will help promote our hempSMART Pet Drops to consumers across the country.”

To purchase hempSMART products, including the Full Spectrum Pet Drops, please visit: https://hempsmart.com/Shop.

About Marijuana Company of America, Inc.
MCOA is a corporation which participates in: (1) product research and development of legal hemp-based consumer products under the brand name “hempSMART™”, that targets general health and well-being; (2) an affiliate marketing program to promote and sell its legal hemp-based consumer products containing CBD; (3) leasing of real property to separate business entities engaged in the growth and sale of cannabis in those states and jurisdictions where cannabis has been legalized and properly regulated for medicinal and recreations use; and, (4) the expansion of its business into ancillary areas of the legalized cannabis and hemp industry, as the legalized markets and opportunities in this segment mature and develop.

About Our hempSMART Products Containing CBD
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not recognized CBD as a safe and effective drug for any indication. Our products containing CBD derived from industrial hemp are not marketed or sold based upon claims that their use is safe and effective treatment for any medical condition as drugs or dietary supplements subject to the FDA’s juridiction.

Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” which are not purely historical and may include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the development, costs and results of new business opportunities and words such as “anticipate”, “seek”, intend”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “plan”, or similar phrases may be deemed “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects, the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company’s reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based products. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-12G, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, please visit www.sec.gov.

For more information, please visit the Company’s websites at:

MarijuanaCompanyofAmerica.com
hempSMART.com
NetworkNewsWires/MCOA

Corporate Communications Contact:
NetworkNewsWire (NNW)
New York, New York
www.NetworkNewsWire.com
212.418.1217 Office
[email protected]

#Weed woes: Canada struggles to meet huge demand for legal #cannabis $BOG.ca $NBUD.ca $MCOA $AERO $CBDS $CGRW $APH.ca $GBLX $ACG $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:12 PM on Monday, November 5th, 2018

  • Two weeks after Canada became the first G20 country to legalize cannabis amid much fanfare and celebration, numerous stores – both physical and digital – are struggling to meet unexpectedly high demand and in much of the country, the legal supply of marijuana has dried up.
  • “There is not enough legal marijuana to supply all of recreational demand in Canada,” said Rosalie Wyonch, a policy analyst at the CD Howe Institute. “The shortages are happening faster than I would have expected, but our research suggested quite strongly that there would be shortages in the first year of legalization.”

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

Sun 4 Nov 2018 08.00 GMT Last modified on Mon 5 Nov 2018 11.22 GMT

When Trevor Tobin opened one of Canada’s first legal cannabis stores last month, he had high hopes of playing a small part in a historic national experiment – and of making a tidy profit.

Brimming with optimism, he and his mother Brenda pooled $100,000 in savings to create High North, one of the few private retailers in Newfoundland and Labrador.

But the pair quickly found themselves staring at empty shelves – and watching the money they had invested slip away. Day after day, staff at Labrador City’s only cannabis shop have had to turn away customers due to scarce inventory and have even gone as far as temporarily shutting down the store.

“After a week of 100 apologies [to customers] each day, we’re tired of just saying sorry,” said Tobin. “We were told there would be bumps in the road. This isn’t a bump in the road. This is a pothole.”

Two weeks after Canada became the first G20 country to legalize cannabis amid much fanfare and celebration, numerous stores – both physical and digital – are struggling to meet unexpectedly high demand and in much of the country, the legal supply of marijuana has dried up.

“There is not enough legal marijuana to supply all of recreational demand in Canada,” said Rosalie Wyonch, a policy analyst at the CD Howe Institute. “The shortages are happening faster than I would have expected, but our research suggested quite strongly that there would be shortages in the first year of legalization.”

A mix of regulatory frameworks, retail chain distribution and logistical kinks – including rolling postal strikes across the country – have created fertile ground for the shortages.

When Colorado legalized recreational cannabis, it took three years for supply to finally catch up to demand, and Canada could expect a similar delay, said Wyonch.

In Quebec, the Société Québécoise du Cannabis – a government entity overseeing sales – has opted to close three days per week in order to better ration its limited supply.

Online sales make up a large component of the recreational cannabis market. In Ontario, where there are no physical retailers, residents are required to purchase products through a government-run web site.

Within the first 24 hours of legalization, the Ontario Cannabis Store website processed 100,000 orders – but few of them have been shipped to customers.

Because Ontario only allows online sales of cannabis, many residents have been left waiting two weeks for orders to arrive – and some report random cancellations of their orders.

University student Curtis Baller found out that his order had been cancelled after seeing a charge disappear from his credit card – not a notification from the OCS.“The most frustrating part to me is that the government forced a monopoly on both the supply and delivery on cannabis products, then failed to deliver,” Baller told the Guardian. Ontario’s ombudsmen has received more than 1,000 complaints about the site since it launched on 17 October.

Supply for retailers, either private or government, is dictated by contracts between the government and licensed suppliers, making shifting to new sources of cannabis to fill supply gaps a lengthy process.

“Health Canada is still licensing producers, existing producers are expanding facilities and at the end of the day, marijuana is a plant. It takes a certain amount of time to grow, process and package, ship and get tested,” said Wyonch.

The shortages are also likely to be costly for provincial and federal governments. In a policy paper developed with colleague Anindya Sen, Wyonch argues that the government could lose $800m in revenues to the black market – far outpacing the anticipated tax revenues of $300m-$600m in the first year of legalization.

For Tobin and his mother, one of the few private retailers with a retail licence, the shortage has turned what seemed like a lucrative business into a temporarily losing venture.

“I’m paying staff members to sit around with fingers crossed that we’ll receive [new stock]. We never do,” said Tobin. “I can’t keep operating the shop, losing money everyday paying staff with no product.”

Some see a potential silver lining to the shortage: the bottlenecks likely mean a large number of people have tried to shift from the black market to the legal space at a faster rate than anticipated.

But the risk remains that the move may be reversed if supply problems are not resolved.

“The government will likely be successful in eliminating the black market, as long as the legal supply comes online quickly. Otherwise, we risk potentially entrenching a black market,” said Wyonch.

But Tobin fears that the recent shortages have already pushed consumers away from the legal markets. Both new and prior cannabis users have expressed frustration that they can’t buy from his store, or any other retailer in the region.

“Now that we can’t supply them, they’re still going to find it,” he said. “There’s no shortage of weed in Labrador City. Just the legal stuff.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/04/cannabis-weed-marijuana-canada-high-demand

#Marijuana shortages abound in Canada in just second week of legalization $BOG.ca NBUD.ca $MCOA $ACG.ca $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:54 AM on Monday, October 29th, 2018

  • The Canadian cannabis industry is still reeling from sky-high demand in the second week of legalization, with growers expressing frustration at the length of time it’s taking to get licensed as shelves sit empty.
  • “We’re biting our nails and I think our shareholders are biting their nails too,” said Anthony Durkacz, director at FSD Pharma Inc., an Ontario-based producer that received its cultivation licence a year ago and is still waiting for its sales licence. “We want to be supplying.”

People check out the sample counter at a cannabis store in Winnipeg, Man., on Oct. 17.Canadian Press/John Woods

Kristine Owram

The Canadian cannabis industry is still reeling from sky-high demand in the second week of legalization, with growers expressing frustration at the length of time it’s taking to get licensed as shelves sit empty.

“We’re biting our nails and I think our shareholders are biting their nails too,” said Anthony Durkacz, director at FSD Pharma Inc., an Ontario-based producer that received its cultivation licence a year ago and is still waiting for its sales licence. “We want to be supplying.”

Every province, not just Manitoba, is receiving less cannabis than originally requested

The process of getting a sales licence from Health Canada is onerous, according to Durkacz. After receiving a cultivation license, a grower must produce two full crops, send them off for testing, get its sales software audited, and then submit a completed application for the sales licence, which can take up to 341 days to process, he said.

“So even after you’ve done everything and done everything right you could be waiting up to a year to get the licence,” he said.

Customers lineup at a government cannabis store Oct. 19, in Montreal on the third day of the legal cannabis sales in Canada. Canadian Press/Ryan RemiorzCanada became the first major economy to legalize recreational cannabis on Oct. 17, taking the lead in a global market that’s expected to reach US$32 billion in consumer spending by 2022, according to Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics. The euphoria that sent pot stocks soaring in the lead-up to legalization has faded, with the BI Canada Cannabis Competitive Peers index losing 26 per cent over seven sessions before rebounding on Thursday.

While some growers wait for their licences, others are struggling to keep up with demand. The government-run Ontario Cannabis Store received 100,000 orders in its first 24 hours. In Quebec, online and in-store orders totalled nearly 140,000 in the first week of legalization, and the provincial-owned retailer indicated Wednesday it may have to close some locations as producers couldn’t meet demand. Producers will have a “colossal” amount of work to do to ensure supply, the Societe Quebecoise du Cannabis said in a statement.

A man holds a bag of marijuana he bought in a cannabis store in Quebec City, on Oct. 17. Alice Chiche/AFP/Getty ImagesThe problem is that no one knew what the demand curve would look like after a century of prohibition, said Bruce Linton, chief executive officer of Canopy Growth Corp., which has secured more than a third of total Canadian supply committed to date.

Canopy shipped approximately 1 million orders of medical cannabis in its first four years of operations. It expects to ship more than 1 million units of recreational pot in the first four weeks after legalization, Linton said.

‘Just Outstanding’

“The response has been pretty unbelievable,” Linton said. “I don’t think everything will run out but you might not be able to get the identical stuff you got last time.”

He added that Canopy is sending out orders as fast as it can pack and ship them, but there have been delays in getting new product up on the provincial websites. It will start shipping out new products, including Tweed-brand gel caps and pre-rolled joints, over the next week and a half.

Bruce Linton (left), Canopy Growth CEO, in St. Johns, Newfoundland sells the first gram of legal pot at the Tweed store at the stroke of midnight Oct. 17. Julie Oliver/PostmediaInitial demand at Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis was “just outstanding,” said Chara Goodings, a spokeswoman for the government regulator that’s overseeing sales in the western province. “But it has created some struggles with our supply level.” Very few producers have been able to deliver what was agreed upon, she said.

Dried Bud

The situation is similar in Manitoba, where Winnipeg-based Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. only has dried bud on its store shelves as it has been unable to get any shipments of cannabis oils or gel caps, said spokesman Gary Symons. In the first seven days, Delta 9 saw close to 9,600 transactions totalling $736,124 in revenues. The company is now selling about $50,000 worth of product a day.

“Every province, not just Manitoba, is receiving less cannabis than originally requested,” Susan Harrison, spokeswoman for Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, said in an email.

Aphria Inc. CEO Vic Neufeld predicted the supply shortages on the company’s earnings call five days before legalization. Citing supply-chain issues, labor shortages and delays in getting licences and excise stamps from the government, Neufeld said Aphria would be unable to meet demand in the first two to three months after legalization. The company was forced to destroy almost 14,000 plants worth $979,000 in the last quarter due to a lack of qualified greenhouse workers.

Extra Staff

There are currently 132 licensed producers in Canada and “many more are in the queue,” said Canadian Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor. Health Canada has hired 300 additional staff to evaluate applications, she said. But the process, which includes background checks, is time-consuming and it’s important to not cut corners, she said.

“There’s not a mass shortage of cannabis around the country right now,” only certain strains that have sold out, Petitpas Taylor said. “We really have all hands on deck, we want to do what we can, but in no way am I going to compromise this new regime.”

The challenge for the government is balancing public safety with a desire to eradicate the illicit market, said Deepak Anand, vice president of business development and government relations at Cannabis Compliance Inc., a consulting firm for pot companies which is currently working on “hundreds” of licensing applications.

“Health Canada’s trying to balance quality and public safety with the need for getting more product on so that they can eliminate the black market,” Anand said. “Sometimes these goals conflict and compete with each other.”

The only near-term solution to the supply shortage, according to Durkacz at FSD Pharma, is to allow retailers to sell product sourced from the black market.

“You would instantaneously have a supply-demand balance and then you could try to convert people from the black market to the legalized market,” he said. “That’s probably the only way to solve this in the short term.”

Source: https://business.financialpost.com/cannabis/cannabis-business/marijuana-shortages-abound-in-canada-amid-licensing-rigmarole

#Marijuana Stocks: Three Key Catalysts for Further Growth $BOG.ca $NBUD.ca $MCOA $AERO $CBDS $CGRW $APH.ca $GBLX $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 1:59 PM on Friday, October 26th, 2018

For most of 2018, marijuana stocks were the hottest opportunities around.

• Canopy Growth (CGC) ran from $20 to $57

• Tilray Inc. (TLRY) ran from $20 to $300

• OrganiGram Holdings (OGRMF) ran from $3 to $6.75

• Marijuana ETF, MJ ran from $26 to more than $44

All on anticipatory momentum as we neared Canadian approval this month. However, once the news was out, related stocks began to pull back on a “sell the news” reaction.

Once an expected catalyst is out, these are to be expected.

However, don’t count out marijuana stocks so fast, though. The catalysts ahead are monumental.

One – Americans Greatly Support its Legalization

A growing majority of Americans fully support its legalization, which has led to its decriminalization and the potential for significant cash inflows. In fact, 66% of Americans now support legalizing marijuana, another new high in Gallup’s trend. The latest figure marks the third consecutive year that support has increased.

Already, nine states and D.C. have legalized marijuana for recreational use.

As more states move to legalize its use, sales will skyrocket, in our opinion.

Two – Canada is Only the Start of the Boom

On October 17, 2018, marijuana became legal in Canada. But no one expected the demand to be as strong as it’s been. In fact, according to Fortune, the country can’t keep up with the pace of demand. Retail shops are nearly sold out.

It’s gotten so bad that stores have closed until the supply problem is fixed.

By 2021 analysts say Canada could have nearly four million recreational marijuana users, creating a monstrous $4.5 billion industry. The industry could balloon to $8.7 billion shortly thereafter, as marijuana retail sales just in Canada are likely to surpass beer, wine and spirit sales combined. That’s big money.

Three – Corporate America is on Board with Marijuana

As sales of beer fall in the United States, brewers have begun to bet that legalization of marijuana around the globe, especially the United States, will continue to build momentum and sales of cannabis products will take off.

Molson Coors for example listed legal cannabis among the biggest possible risks to its business in its annual shareholder report.

Even Bill Gates’ Microsoft jumped into the cannabis business on the software side, partnering with Kind Financial. The software will give governments and business owners a way to monitor the distribution of cannabis “from seed to sale” and ensure compliance.

Hewlett-Packard powers the Flowhub cannabis compliance solutions, too. Flowhub’s product not only provides business management and transactional processing tools for retail stores but also workflow focused on compliance, regulatory and reporting rules of marijuana dispensaries.

However, this is – we believe – is only the start. Pay close attention to this space.

Source: https://www.chasingmarkets.com/news/15bd33a6521b01/Marijuana_Stocks%3A_Three_Key_Catalysts_for_Further_Growth

Canada Running Short Of #Marijuana After Legalization $BOG.ca $NBUD.a $MCOA $TBP.ca $AERO $CBDS $CGRW $APH.ca $GBLX $ACG $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:54 AM on Monday, October 22nd, 2018

  • Just two days after it legalized the sale and personal use of recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, Canada has found itself suffering from a shortage of the commodity
  • Canadian cannabis producers and stores apparently underestimated the huge surge in demand for cannabis following its legalization.

Oct 22, 2018 06:47 PM

The United States might be in for the same surprise when it legalizes the use of recreational marijuana or cannabis in the future.

Just two days after it legalized the sale and personal use of recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, Canada has found itself suffering from a shortage of the commodity. Canadian cannabis producers and stores apparently underestimated the huge surge in demand for cannabis following its legalization.

Under the new law, Canadian citizens will be allowed to carry up to 30 grams of cannabis in public and each household will be able to grow up to four marijuana plants.

Statistics Canada, the country’s national statistics agency, estimated that 5.4 million Canadians will buy cannabis from legal dispensaries in 2018. That’s about 15 percent of the population. In addition, some 4.9 million Canadians already smoke weed. These projections included a boost from legalization but were still off the mark due to the high demand for cannabis.

Bill Blair, who led the government’s cannabis legalization program, said the country is unable to supply enough to meet demand. He said the government expected “certain strains might run out and there would be a bit of a run on supply.”

Cannabis supply began running low on Oct. 19. The supply dearth saw retailers are turning people away because they’d run out of stock.

The Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation, the sole legal retailer of recreational cannabis in the province of Ontario, said some cannabis items are unavailable on its website. It said given the scarcity of cannabis products across Canada, it expects “significant” short-term supply problems.

Cannabis retailers in Alberta and Prince Edward Island said certain cannabis products quickly sold out online after vigorous business on their cannabis sales websites on the first day of legalization. Experts said the supply shortage situation is the same across Canada.

Experts said the shortage of cannabis brings with it the risk Canada might soon run out of practically its entire inventory of cannabis products. The situation is due to supply and demand with many users stocking-up due to worries there might not be enough stock in the stores over the next few weeks.

Cannabis demand is under threat because supply didn’t ramp up to meet demand, said marijuana advocate Steven Stairs. He expects the government to step in and try to ensure supply by mitigating regulation and taxation.

The Cannabis Commerce Association of Canada said most of the cannabis produced in Canada right now doesn’t come from the black market but rather from medically licensed growers, or the grey market. These licensed growers weren’t able to ramp-up production in time to meet demand because weed wasn’t legal at the time so there was no sense in boosting production.

Growers also held off on planting more weed because licenses allowing them to do so weren’t available before Oct. 17. Those who applied on Oct. 17 are still waiting for their applications to be processed.

Source: http://en.businesstimes.cn/articles/104225/20181022/canada-running-short-marijuana-legalization.htm

No. 1 Wall Street #pot analyst says the #marijuana market will be much bigger than she first thought $BOG.ca $NBUD.ca $MCOA $APPB

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:53 AM on Friday, October 12th, 2018
  • The cannabis industry’s rapid evolution and new strategic partnerships with mainstream brands reveal a far larger possible market for legal marijuana than investors and analysts first anticipated, according to Cowen.
  • Cowen’s Vivien Azer nearly triples her 12-month price forecast on Canadian marijuana producer Tilray this week to $172 from $62.
  • Recreational use of cannabis in Canada becomes legal Oct. 17, though each of the country’s 10 provinces will be able to regulate the market within their jurisdiction.

Wall Street’s top pot analyst says marijuana market will be much bigger than she first thought   23 Hours Ago | 00:58

With Canada about to legalize recreational use of marijuana, the industry’s rapid evolution and new strategic partnerships with mainstream brands reveal a far larger possible market for pot than investors and analysts first anticipated, according to Cowen.

“With cannabis, you’re talking about this massive step change in terms of the addressable market,” Vivien Azer said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “You’re bringing a $7 billion illicit market into the legal market and so it does require a different valuation framework.”

Azer, the only pot analyst from a major Wall Street research house, nearly tripled her 12-month price forecast on Canadian marijuana producer Tilray this week to $172 from $62. The new target for the stock, which trades in the U.S. on the Nasdaq, implies more than 30 percent upside from current levels. She also upped her forecast on Canadian pot company Canopy Growth.

Supply remains critical issues for cannabis companies, says analyst   8:17 AM ET Wed, 10 Oct 2018 | 01:51

Just how big the market will get is tough to put a number on right now, but Azer cites a cannabis executive who estimated the market could be one day worth $500 billion.

“Our broader, big picture view of cannabis goes beyond the adult use launch in Canada,” she wrote in a report this week. “Rather, we believe this is the first step toward the establishment of cannabis as a key functional ingredient touching multiple consumer categories with four key verticals: adult use, beauty and nutraceuticals, OTC pain and sleep, and pharmaceuticals.”

Recreational use of cannabis in Canada becomes legal Oct. 17, though each of the country’s 10 provinces will be able to regulate the market within their jurisdiction independent of Ottawa.

While it’s still early days for the marijuana business, the first signs of its broader applications are easily recognized.

Tilray shares, which are up more than 650 percent since their July IPO, posted one of their best days ever mid-September after the company announced approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration to import weed to the U.S. for medical research.

In a move likely foreshadowing broader pharmaceutical application, the company will work with the University of California San Diego Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research to study the safety, tolerability and efficacy of marijuana for a neurological disorder.

“If this study can identify cannabinoids as a potential treatment for patients suffering from essential tremor, we can conduct further research and potentially provide alternative effective methods of relief for the high numbers of patients with Essential Tremor,” said Catherine Jacobson, director of clinical research at Tilray.

The globe’s major alcohol companies have also wasted no time exploring joint ventures with a handful of lucky cannabis producers.

Alcohol vs. Cannabis use in the U.S.

Constellation Brands recently increased its investment in Canopy Growth with a 9.9 percent stake in the company, granting the Corona beer brewer a foothold in an industry it expects to soon be legal in the United States.

“We think that we’re by far the best company in the world — or in the best position in the world of any company — to capitalize on what is absolutely without a doubt going to be a huge market over the next 10 years, hundreds of billions of dollars,” Constellation CEO Robert Sands said in the company’s earnings call Thursday.

“We expect to reap the benefits of our cannabis investment, which we see as being incremental to our core beer, wine and spirits portfolio,” he added.

Richard Lautens | Toronto Star | Getty Images
Dried plants are processed and trimmed by hand. A a state-of-the-art fully automated medical marijuana production facility is in a nondescript building in Scarborough.

And while the upside for Constellation appears obvious, the benefit is two-fold. A check from one of the world’s largest brewers is a welcome influx of capital for a handful of companies whose success will likely be defined by their ability to raise capital and scale production.

“Given the nascent stage of global cannabis, we believe that revenue growth should serve as the primary valuation methodology,” Cowen’s Azer said in her note. Specifically, Azer said her primary measurement when drawing price estimates is enterprise value divided by sales, divided by revenue growth, akin to a traditional price/earnings growth ratio.

Some Wall Street firms cover the pot stocks, but none the size of Cowen. It’s still an emerging industry.

To be sure, the spike in certain pot stocks — combined with a limited count of floating shares for some companies — has left stocks like Tilray and Canopy with lofty valuations and rampant volatility.

Tilray has about 93 million shares outstanding, but the float — those shares actually available for trading — is just 21 million, according to FactSet.

Tilray’s 2020 P/E ratio, meanwhile, is currently 300; Canopy’s is 125. Tilray’s stock price has posted no less than 12 days of double-digit moves on percentage basis in the last month.

“There have been no shortage of recent catalysts to spur market and investor interest,” Azer said. “As such, volatility should be seen as a natural occurrence in the cannabis market, and not dissimilar to other nascent industries.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/10/top-pot-analyst-says-weed-market-bigger-than-first-thought.html