No major corporate news to kick off this final day of the week in weed, but there was an important cannabis-related vote in the United States Congress late Thursday that is worth knowing about, along with some early details on the infused product plan from Canopy Growth as the company prepares to explain a much wider-than-expected Q4 loss to investors later Friday morning and finally, Marcy Nicholson takes a look at a neat new report from AltaCorp predicting Latin American spending on medical cannabis will hit $10-billion per year in less than a decade.
– Jameson Berkow
Cannabis Professional’s daily recap of industry news. View archive here.
Table of contents: U.S. Congressional vote • Canopy's edibles plan • Latin America medical pot outlook
U.S. Congress votes to block DOJ from interfering in state-level cannabis
The United States Department of Justice would not be allowed to spend a single dollar enforcing federal cannabis prohibitions in states with legal medical or recreational cannabis regimes, according to a new law that passed the House of Representatives on Thursday. The amendment to a larger appropriations bill won support from virtually all Democrats in the Democrat-controlled chamber, as well as several dozen Republicans, but it must now get through the Republican-controlled Senate before it can be enacted.
“Historically that chamber’s Appropriations Committee has been relatively open to attaching marijuana riders to spending bills, and has consistently approved the medical cannabis protections,” Marijuana Moment’s Tom Angell writes in an analysis for Forbes, “But the body’s Republican leadership may be reluctant to take the further step of also tying the Justice Department’s hands when it comes to enforcing federal prohibition against licensed businesses and consumers in states that allow recreational marijuana use and sales.”
Protections for state medical cannabis programs have been part of the U.S. federal budget since 2014, but Thursday’s vote marked the first time Congress has acted to protect recreational cannabis markets as well.
Canopy to launch edibles in December but with smaller range, select markets
Canada’s largest cannabis grower will have some cannabis-infused foods and drinks in stores shelves in time for the holiday season in December, but co-CEO Bruce Linton says the company will likely only be able to provide a small range of products to select markets in the initial phase.
Mr. Linton told Canadian Press on the sidelines of the IdeaCity Conference in Toronto on Thursday that Canopy was already in talks with several provinces and was in the process of determining which markets to prioritize, though he did not specify which products the company was planning to roll out first, whether they will take the form of foods, drinks or vapes/extracts.
Health Canada published its final regulations for cannabis-infused products and extracts last week. They are set to take effect on Oct. 17, exactly one year after the initial phase of recreational cannabis legalization launched in Canada, at which point producers will be able to start providing the legally-mandated 60 days notice ahead of introducing new products to the market. Cannabis Professional will be listening to Canopy’s Q4 conference call at 8:30 a.m. EDT this morning to see if any more details about the company’s legalization 2.0 plans are divulged, though we will certainly also be listening for any explanation of why Q4 losses ended up being nearly four times larger than analysts were expecting and exactly how the reference to an “unusual weather event” factored into the results.
– with a file from the Canadian Press
AltaCorp pegs Latin American medical pot market at C$10 billion by 2028
Calgary-based investment dealer AltaCorp Capital Inc. forecasts medical cannabis spending in Latin America at $10-billion by 2028, based on expectations for the market’s penetration rate to grow to 1.6 per cent from 0.05 per cent in 2019. For comparison, this rate is roughly 1 per cent in Canada. This increase is expected as the general population learns more about medical marijuana’s therapeutic benefits, AltaCorp said. Per-capita spending for medical cannabis there was pegged at $479 in 2019, less than a quarter of the spending power in Canada at $1,954, though this is forecast to double over the next 10 years to $957 in Latin America by 2028. Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico are expected to account for the bulk of Latin America’s medical pot market while regulatory expertise in these markets will play a key role in capitalizing on the region’s opportunities. Khiron Life Sciences, Pharmacielo and Avicanna Inc. are companies in “favourable” positions to capture this market, AltaCorp said.
– Marcy Nicholson