Canadian Cannabis Company Tilray to Export Into U.S.
Canadian cannabis companies have been given a huge advantage over U.S. businesses thanks to a progressive national law that has already federally legalized medical marijuana and the Cannabis Act that ends prohibition across the Great White North this October 17th. With access to banking services, financial markets, and a reasonable tax code, the economic climate simply provides Canadian companies with greater access to capital than their counterparts in the United States.
We’ve already seen Canadian companies buying up U.S. businesses and listing themselves on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq markets, but it is kind of adding insult to injury when the United States government is favoring a Canadian cannabis company Tilray, allowing the business to export medical cannabis across the border, as Bloomberg reports:
Tilray will work with the University of California San Diego’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research on a clinical trial to test whether the drug can effectively treat essential tremor, a common neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable shaking and affects more than 4 percent of people over age 65.
“I think it’s really exciting that we’re targeting this indication that no one else has thought of targeting,” said Catherine Jacobson, director of clinical research at Nanaimo, British Columbia-based Tilray. “It’s showing that these cannabinoids may be effective at treating a number of diseases that people hadn’t thought of before.”
Dr. Fatta Nahab, a neurologist at UC San Diego and the principal investigator for the study, said his first exposure to the idea of using cannabis to treat the disorder came a few years ago when a young male patient who he’d been tracking suddenly showed an improvement in his tremors.
The United States federal government needs to wise up quickly and end cannabis prohibition. The burgeoning cannabis industry has the opportunity to create even more jobs and generate more revenue that it has, while it is handcuffed by federal prohibition and overregulation. Small farmers and craft cannabis companies of all stripes are falling behind Canadian companies without Uncle Sam favoring our neighbor to the north.
The upcoming International Cannabis Business Conference in Portland will feature a “What’s Next for the Oregon Cannabis Industry” panel that includes Adam Smith of the Craft Cannabis Alliance, who is working to lay the groundwork for Beaver State cultivators and processors to export across state lines as soon as possible. To level the playing field with Canada, Congress should be working on opening up trade across international borders as well and open up Canada and other nations with legal markets to American-grown cannabis.
Don’t miss the latest information and the opportunity to network with top investors and entrepreneurs from across the globe at the International Cannabis Business Conference in Portland this September 27th-28th. Get your tickets today!
