Marijuana is becoming global at a rapid pace: weekly cannabis

Photographer: Ulises Ruiz / AFP / Getty Images

Apparently overnight, the cannabis industry has globalized.

This can be seen in the agreement just announced Curaleaf Holdings Inc., the largest cannabis company in the United States, aims to turn Europe into a launch pad for international growth. Or check out the latest from British American Tobacco Plc participates in a Canadian marijuana company, Organigram Holdings Inc. And there’s also the bill passed last week in Mexico that could make recreational marijuana legal, paving the way for strong international investment.

Together, developments show that global receptivity to marijuana is accelerating.

Think about how quickly Mexico’s stance has changed. Possession of small amounts of marijuana was first decriminalized in 2009 and legalized medical use was legalized in 2017. The country issued regulations to implement widespread sales of medical marijuana earlier this year, shortly before the recent bill to legalize recreational use.

Read more: The Mexican lower house approves the bill to create a legal marijuana market

This is a relatively rapid progression compared to the United States, where decriminalization began in the 1970s and medical cannabis was legalized in the 1990s. Decades later, the industry continues to seek national approval for recreational use.

With a population approaching 130 million people, Mexico is on the verge of becoming the largest legal recreational market in the world. This could put pressure on the United States to follow suit, as it will be located between Mexico and Canada, countries that allow cannabis use.

The Mexican movement is particularly important for global cannabis. Since many multinational pharmaceutical, alcohol and consumer companies are already there, it could make the country an attractive place to export cannabis and related products, Emily Paxhia, managing partner of Poseidon Asset Management told me in a phone conversation last week. “You can make high-quality manufactures in Mexico for a low cost.”

Meanwhile, the two agreements announced last week show how quickly companies can expand overseas.

“It quickly went from focusing on national opportunities to participating in this global supply chain,” said Paxhia, who has been investing in cannabis with Poseidon for seven years, referring to the rapidly changing industry. Poseidon currently has about $ 100 million invested in cannabis worldwide and about $ 15 million in Mexico.

As more countries heat up on cannabis, the movement of products to them will be faster. The purchase of Emac Life Sciences Ltd. of Curaleaf is based on this idea.

“We want to get in early,” Curaleaf chief executive Boris Jordan said in an interview. Thanks to Emac’s legal status in Europe, Curaleaf hopes to be able to start selling its CBD products and its cannabis brands fairly quickly through the deal, he said.

Emmac is now in eight countries, but European Union laws make it likely that national borders will not slow things down the way state borders in the United States have and Jordan has no plans to stop with Europe.