NEW YORK, June 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
According to a report published by research firm Cowen & Co., the U.S. legal cannabis industry is anticipated to reach USD 75 Billion in sales by 2030. The research clarifies that the increasing consumer backing of legal cannabis, and its wider access, is driving meaningful change at the state level. Additionally, Cowen anticipates more ballot initiatives to legalize cannabis for adult-use in both Michigan and Illinois in the upcoming midterm elections. The research exemplifies that expanded access in Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey might inspire other states in the Northeast to pursue legalization. Beyond the U.S, Canada has legalized Cannabis on a national basis earlier last week. Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions (OTC: REFG), PotNetwork Holdings Inc. (OTC: POTN), Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (OTC: ATTBF), Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (OTC: GLDFF), THC BioMed Intl Ltd. (OTC: THCBF)
The recent progress, from both the political and technological grounds, has helped push the market in new directions. Editor-in-Chief at Arcview Market Research and Principal Analyst at BDS Analytics, Tom Adams, explained: "Our data shows positive indicators across the board for the legal cannabis industry, in North America and around the globe. The passage of the 2016 ballot initiatives and continued maturation of the existing Adult-Use markets are the primary drivers of the growth this year. That's nothing compared to what we can expect in 2018 and beyond from Nevada's tourism, and California and Canada planning to launch Adult-Use sales in 2018."
Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions (OTC: REFG) announced yesterday that, "the company is working on growing industrial hemp as part of Vermont's industrial hemp program. The Company is looking at multiple properties to begin growing and anticipates its first harvest will be in 2019.
'While we are fully committed to our solution to the banking and financial transaction problems in the state-sanctioned marijuana industry, we are pleased thus far with our diversification into CBD extraction,' said Jeremy Roberts, CEO of Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions. 'With the recent approval of a CBD based medicine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Agency's recent clarification, we believe this emerging market is an important focus for our company.'
Under Vermont's law, applications must register annually with the state's Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets and pay an annual fee. Growers must also comply with various farming statutes, including the Required Agricultural Practices rules.
'This is an exciting step for our company. We've been contacted by many shareholders who want to see us expand our footprint and this decision is in direct response to those petitions,' said Roberts."
PotNetwork Holdings Inc. (OTC: POTN) is a publicly traded company that acts as a holding company for its subsidiaries, First Capital Venture Co., the owner of Diamond CBD, Inc., the maker of Diamond CBD oils. The Company recently announced that its subsidiary, Diamond CBD, Inc., achieved revenues of over USD 2 Million, continuing its trend of setting new record sales year over year. Over half a million dollars in Diamond CBD's sales revenues were generated exclusively online in the first 27 days of May. This helps prove that Diamond CBD has achieved a sizable, solid foothold in the markets for its products, and has the ability to continually grow and expand as a result of creating products that meet the needs and desires of its growing number of customers. Additionally, PotNetwork recently announced its plan to prepare a Form 10 to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, to become a fully reporting SEC company. This action is fundamental to the Company's efforts to demonstrate heightened transparency to its investors and bring the Company greater visibility and credibility before a substantially larger group of qualified investors.
Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. (OTC: ATTBF) is a life science and biotechnology company which aggregates, integrates, and invests in cannabis technologies and biotechnology services for the legal cannabis industry developing in Canada. The Company recently announced that they have signed a letter of intent to integrate BLOCKStrain's proprietary technology into Abattis's product and services ecosystem. Through their collaboration, the parties hope to enable Abattis clients to instantly arrange for sales, shipping, testing and analysis of Abattis products and give clients comprehensive visibility over such products over their entire lifecycles. Abattis and BLOCKStrain also intend to explore development and integration opportunities to expand on Abattis's current life sciences and biotechnology services offerings. BLOCKStrain not only reduces the workload and costs involved with testing but also provides full visibility of testing results for producers, government regulators and consumers. "BLOCKStrain provides a missing piece of the puzzle that helps both licensed producers and testing labs," stated BLOCKStrain CEO, Robert Galarza. "Our system is built to alleviate the administrative bottleneck in the testing process".
Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (OTCQB: GLDFF), a Canadian company with operations in multiple jurisdictions including Oregon, Nevada and Canada, is one of the largest cannabis oil and solution providers in North America, and a leading cannabis products company built around recognized brands. On May 31, 2018, the Company announced its financial results for the fiscal first quarter ended March 31, 2018, and a general business update. For the quarter ended March 31, 2018, net revenue was USD 3.2 Million, as compared to USD 2.3 Million for the same three-month period in 2017 ("Q1 2017"). The 42% year-over-year increase largely reflects the contribution from product sales as a result of the acquisition of Chalice Farms in July 2017, more than offsetting supply constraints of key products across the portfolio and a challenging wholesale market in Oregon.
THC BioMed Intl Ltd. (OTCQB: THCBF) is an ACMPR Licensed Producer and Canada's largest supplier of legal Cannabis Genetics. The Company recently announced its execution of a definitive agreement, further to entering into a Letter of Intent previously announced April 4th, 2018, with Burleigh Heads Cannabis Pty Ltd, an Australian licensed importer and wholesaler of medical cannabis. Upon completion, THC will become the majority shareholder and parent company of BHC and will also have the right to appoint two out of three directors to the Board of the target company. THC also entered into a shareholder's agreement that will govern certain aspects of the issuance of BHC shares and other matters while BHC remains a private company or the shareholders agree to terminate the shareholders agreement. "This acquisition represents an important step in THC's international expansion strategy," said John Miller, CEO & President of THC," BHC has the access and licenses needed for us to gain entry into the Australian medical cannabis market."