RE:RE:RE:The reason why Namaste is not in United KingdomTo start recreational cannabis in the UK is still Illegal
Medical cannabis in the UK was made legal in Nov 2018 but prescription users are practically non existent still to this day, legality was very limited.
UK Home Secretary
Sajid Javid announced that cannabis products would be made legal for patients with an "exceptional clinical need" Note : It is estimated that there are at least 1.4 + million medical cannabis users in the UK today (most obtain their cannabis from Black market )
It was then left to a select few doctors to medically prescribe cannabis (who believe more research is required btw) and limited to some "rare" conditions, conditions we consider common. ie MS did not qualify (today there are 2 specific cannabis products approved for use for patients with MS and hard to treat epilepsy )
Private companies however were able to obtain prescriptions for medical use clients at a cost of about 1000 euro/pound (a month).....about a year after the so called medical legalization, private companies had issued just under 100 prescriptions this BTW was far more than the medical community prescribed
Another note today btw, due to BREXIT, Medical patients who relied on specific strains that came from other countries/suppliers within Europe are screwed due to the fact that the UK is no longer part of Europe and they cannot import cannabis into the UK with the same ease. Hence one of the reasons for the TILRAY - UK deal. the government will import their own cannabis
fun fact : "Currently, the UK is one of the world’s largest exporters of medical cannabis" ??
another fun fact : Cannabis was a licensed medicine in the UK up until 1971
WHISKY's "1000 Medical patients in the UK" was/is not far off, these are the people with medical prescriptions and NOT the ones with Medical needs (2 very different things). We will not even mention the people that use recreationally.
The number of registered UK Medical cannabis users was about 200 by the end of 2019.....by the first half of 2019 the NHS had provided ONLY 18 prescriptions!!
The UK government "Projected" 13 000 medical users by the end of 2020 (that "projection was made prior to 2020) this was a pipe dream made up by the UK gov, as in fact for the months of JAN and FEB of 2020 less than 60 new patients were added.
Today there are approx. 2 500 medically prescribed patients in the UK. dated 15 January 2021....so over 2 years of legalisation and 2 500 medically prescribed users.
So currently as you can see the UK is really uncharted waters, too risky, and far too few medical users to jump in. It was a good decision by Namaste to park their UK medical entry idea for the time being.
That being said Namaste does indeed have a presence in the UK....I guess Everyonedoesit ;)
So having a presence and revenue from the UK is not a bad thing is it ?
Based on the numbers of the last quarters MD&A it is true there was 11 % revenue coming from the UK (17% counting the last three quarters)...BUT did you notice the increase of the Canadian revenue for Namaste for the same quarter ? I know one might say it is lower than the previous quarter ;) but let's keep things relative and compare the Canadian revenue of 9 months ended 2019 and 2020 or 3 months ended 2019 and 2020.
As the sun sets, so shall it rise in the morning. Today is a new day everyone.
GLTA and have a great day