It has been said that in order for a nation of cannabis advocates to have their precious herb of all highness unleashed from the confines of prohibition, they must be prepared to turn it over to the gnashing teeth of the capitalistic grind. Because in the United States, the so-called Land of the Free, home of brave, the two are mutually exclusive. Americans can either continue to purchase marijuana from the black market and stop Big Business from swopping in and swallowing it whole or they can legalize it, make it a part of legitimate commerce and open the door to the big bad wolves of Wall Street. But they can\u2019t have it both ways. Unfortunately, there is no longer a choice in the matter. The door to legal weed is wide open and there is a pack of hungry beasts circling, just waiting for the right moment to go for the jugular and feed.<\/p>\n
The alcohol industry has already established itself as the alpha. Last week, Constellation Brands, the maker of Corona and Modelo, reportedly\u00a0invested almost $4 billion<\/a>\u00a0in a partnership with Canopy Growth, which will be used to bring a line of cannabis-infused beverages to Canada and beyond.<\/p>\n To put this in perspective, the total pull of the North American cannabis industry is estimated at about $11 billion. This means one of the largest beer makers in the world (but not the largest) has enough financial dangle to chin slap most cannabis companies out of the game if that\u2019s what it wanted to do.\u00a0Molson Coors<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Heineken<\/a>\u00a0are also part of the major league brew crew to have claimed a stake in legal marijuana. But while all of these companies have decades of experience creating and marketing beer, they have absolutely none when it comes to cannabis. So, for now, the two industries are working together and playing nice.<\/p>\n But more animals have caught on to the scent of legal marijuana and are moving in for the kill. Companies dealing in pharmaceuticals, tobacco and various other \u201cpackaged-goods\u201d are all plotting their entry into the cannabis trade \u2013 creating a situation where cannabis could become less of an industry and more of an extension of the Big Three \u2014 alcohol, pharmaceuticals and tobacco.<\/p>\n Brendan Kennedy, chief\u00a0executive officer of the Vancouver-based cannabis company Tilray, recently\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Bloomberg that, \u201cCompanies that I wouldn\u2019t have imagined were interested in the space are actively looking at it now.\u201d And, according to quotes from Jessica Lukas, vice president of consumer insights at BDS Analytics, \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a series of large companies across every consumer category that are going to follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\n The threat of cannabis being gobbled up by the alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical companies might sound frightening to some purists of the scene, but the situation could actually be the influence needed to catapult legalization at the federal level. After all, lobbyists connected to these industries have been influencing the controls on Capitol Hill for years, and they have the financial clout to have a real say on whether prohibition lives or die in the United States. So keep an open mind. Marijuana is going big, like it or not.<\/p>\n Still, the tobacco companies are not diving into the cannabis culture nearly as fast as alcohol. Many experts initially thought it would be the other way around. The primary hang-up could be because the tobacco industry is still trying to figure its place in this young and budding market.<\/p>\n Cannabis edibles are obviously poised to become one of the most profitable sectors, with analysts predicting that items like candies and beverages will generate in upwards of $15 billion in\u00a0Canada<\/a>\u00a0alone, once the country allows these products to be sold later next year.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, smokeable cannabis, although expected to be a huge seller once Canada officially launches its legal cannabis marketplace in October, will not even come close to competing. Most of the predictions show that this sector will bring in only around $7 billion nationwide. Some industry insiders say this is because\u00a0smoking marijuana is a dying trend<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one does it [smokes] anymore,\u201d Dooma Wendschuh, co-founder of Belleville, Ont.-based Province Brands, a company that will market a cannabis-infused beer,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0CBC News. \u201cSmoking has lost, and beverages are how we like to become altered.\u201d<\/p>\n So far, the only tobacco company to enter the ganja game is\u00a0Imperial Brands<\/a>, maker of the Kool and Winston cigarette brands. The company is part of an investment with Snoop Dogg\u2019s venture capital firm Case Verde aimed at creating cannabis products like vaporizers and pharmaceutical-grade offerings. Not much more is known about this development. However, Peter Luongo, managing director of Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc., which is affiliated with Philip Morris International Inc, told Bloomberg that smoke-free pot products are the most \u201clogical entry point\u201d for tobacco companies. Yet, he says his company doesn\u2019t have any plans to jump in anytime soon.<\/p>\n Interestingly, Shane MacGuill, head of tobacco research at Euromonitor International,\u00a0believes<\/a>\u00a0marijuana could be the catalyst for the tobacco companies to change direction. Rather than being the death machines they have been for decades, the legalization of cannabis could provide an opportunity for Big Tobacco to be \u201cmore of a pleasure substance provider than a tobacco and nicotine provider,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It is likely that all of these industries \u2014 alcohol, cannabis, pharmaceutical and tobacco \u2014 will continue to team up to make a go of socially acceptable medical and recreational pot products. But you can also guarantee that traditional industries with the deepest pockets are on the prowl to poach talent from the cannabis sector in order to move research and development in-house. Eventually, the Big Three will gain more control of cannabis \u2014 and it could be said that they already have. This will eventually drive some of the weaker marijuana operations into the ground, while also creating opportunities for others to grow. Those that make it will see profits beyond their wildest dreams. Those who don\u2019t will be forever haunted by lesson inside the old adage \u201cbe careful what you wish for.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think the tobacco industry should invest in cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Are Tobacco Companies Next to Invest Big In Marijuana?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
It has been said that in order for a nation of cannabis advocates to have their precious herb of all highness unleashed from the confines of prohibition, they must be prepared to turn it over to the gnashing teeth of the capitalistic grind. Because in the United States, the so-calledContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5504,4798,34,50,1628,3990,461,2177,170,4800,2478,3541,2453],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28713,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28712\/revisions\/28713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tobacco\u2019s Interest in Cannabis Has Been Sluggish<\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Are Tobacco Companies Next to Invest Big In Marijuana?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"