CANADIAN CANNABIS PRICES
Canadian wholesale cannabis prices are off more than 40% in 2022
Canadian cannabis wholesale prices tumbled more than 40% last year as companies continued to work through stubborn supply gluts and struggling cultivators chose to sell off their unsold cannabis instead of destroying it, reports MJ Biz Daily.
According to the publication, while some industry experts see the oversupply of wholesale cannabis easing somewhat, others are more bearish and foresee wholesale prices continuing to fall.
Steve Clark, the Canadian Cannabis Exchange’s (CX) CEO has said that THC remains the main barometer for price, but terpene profiles are becoming more sought after by buyers, while Dan Sutton, CEO of British Columbia-headquartered cannabis producer Tantalus Labs, expects prices will continue to fall.
CALIFORNIA GRANT PROGRAM
California announces $20 million grant program to expand cannabis retail licensing in underserved areas
Marijuana Moment reports that California is launching a first-of-its-kind grant program to support cities and counties in establishing local cannabis business licensing programs.
The aim of the program is to address unmet consumer demand and help curb the illicit market.
According to the publication, local governments are eligible for a cut of the $20 million if they currently have no retail licensing programs but plan to develop and implement one, with 18 counties already having been identified.
DCC Director Nicole Elliott said in a press release: “Expanding access to California’s retail cannabis market is an important step towards protecting consumer safety and supporting a balanced market.
“The retail access grant program ultimately seeks to encourage legal retail operations in areas where existing consumers do not have convenient access to regulated cannabis.”
JAZZ PHARMACEUTICALS
Has GW Pharmaceuticals – now Jazz Pharmaceuticals – knee-capped the CBD industry?
As GW Pharmaceuticals (which was bought by Irish firm Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $7.2bn in 2021) has spent millions of dollars on lobbying activities, a series of events have unfurled which could eventually see it come to dominate the CBD sector, reports BusinessCann.
The publication highlights that, while the European Union indicated Novel Foods would be the pathway for consumer CBD since 2015 – this move did play into GW’s hands.
BusinessCann explores GW’s role in the development of the CBD industry, the safety of CBD as a medicine, GW’s lobbying activities, GW’s patents and the impact of its presence in France and Brazil, among other issues.
It poses questions to GW including:
1. Is Epidiolex data relevant to consumer CBD?
2. Will Jazz be releasing any further data to regulators on its Epidiolex work?
3. Some say the data released to the UK Committee on Toxicity raised issues of safety, without indicating whether the issues were explainable or repeated subsequently?
4. How much has Jazz spent on its lobbying work in the UK, the US and rest of the world?
5. Is CBD best treated as a food or a medicine?
