Canadians always come across as a laid back mob and a predicted C$1.3 billion dollar industry could be behind it.

Canada is one of the few countries in the world that have nationwide legalised medical cannabis use and have licensed mass producers, and recent regulatory changes could see up to a dozen producers looking to go public.

With marijuana illegal at the federal level in the States Canada has seen the majority of private equity investment coming from the US.

The first cannabis producer to go public in Canada was Tweed Marijuana Inc whose offering in April was oversubscribed within 15 minutes.

The regulation changes by Health Canada saw more than 850 companies apply for licenses but only 13 have been granted so far. Health Canada estimates the sector will grow tenfold in its first 10 years, reaching about 450,000 users and CA$1.3 billion in sales.

“Canada is one of the few countries anywhere where its citizens have a constitutionally protected right to access medical marijuana with a physician’s consent. And you’ve got the government trying to create an industry around it,” said Paul Rosen, chief executive officer of PharmaCan, a holding company with large stakes in four producers.

As with most young industries there will be plenty of takeovers and jockeying to become the market leader, so from an investment point of view (I’ll leave the drug use point of view to the comments section) there could be some good opportunities for investment.

I may be asking Adam to return the bookmaking favour I’m affording him during the WC by becoming my drug broker over there

;-)
Dog

Awaiting the Spliff futures market