Extroverting

Author: Brad Dunn

  • The One Number That Matters for the Hottest Marijuana Stocks

    The One Number That Matters for the Hottest Marijuana Stocks

    It’s been a busy few months for Aurora Cannabis. Just how busy was made crystal clear when the Canadian marijuana grower reported its fiscal 2018 second-quarter results last week.

    While Aurora’s Q2 results were impressive, the most important number of all won’t be found on the company’s income statement or its balance sheet, according to Nasdaq.com.

    Instead, the one number that matters the most for Aurora was 240,000. That’s the number of kilograms of cannabis the company will be able to produce on an annual basis with currently owned facilities.

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  • 10 Cities With the Most and Least Expensive Marijuana in the World

    10 Cities With the Most and Least Expensive Marijuana in the World

    In case you haven't noticed, the cannabis industry is growing at an incredible pace.

    Within the U.S., according to a report from Marijuana Business Daily released in 2017, legal weed sales are expected to grow by 45% in 2018, mainly because California opened its doors to legalized recreational weed.

    Throughout North America, cannabis research firm ArcView estimates the industry can grow by an average of 26% annually through 2021. That type of growth is hard for investors to ignore, and it's a big reason many pot stocks have doubled or tripled in value over the trailing year.

    But as you're probably aware, even with marijuana being viewed in a more positive light in the U.S. and many other countries around the world, the industry is completely different from one country to the next. This is perhaps no more apparent than when examining the price per gram for cannabis across the world.

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  • 5 Words That Could Mean Billions of Dollars for Marijuana Stocks

    5 Words That Could Mean Billions of Dollars for Marijuana Stocks

    You've heard the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. But what's a word worth? In the case of five words spoken by Canada's public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, the answer just might be at least $1 billion each, according to the Motley Fool.

    Goodale stated this past week that Canada is "on track and on time" for legalization of recreational marijuana in July.

    There had been some concerns that the country wouldn't be able to pull off legalization on such a quick time table, but Goodale's message could alleviate some of those concerns. And, assuming he's right, those five words could mean billions of dollars for marijuana stocks.

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  • Fourth Canadian Marijuana ETF to Begin Trading This Week

    Fourth Canadian Marijuana ETF to Begin Trading This Week

    The marijuana sector continues to expand in the ETF market, with the country's fourth cannabis-focused exchange-traded fund set to begin trading this week, according to The Globe and Mail.

    Evolve Funds Group Inc. received regulatory approval late this week to launch the Evolve Marijuana ETF, a fund that will invest in its own actively managed portfolio comprising companies listed domestically and globally with business activities in the recreational and/or medical marijuana industry.

    With the ticker SEED, the fund is expected to begin trading on Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

    "We believe the international cannabis industry is poised to exceed $30-billion by 2021, which would be a 60-per-cent compounded annual growth rate in the next few years," Raj Lala, president and CEO of Evolve ETFs, said in a statement.

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  • Canadian Brewer Files Patent for Cannabis Beer

    Canadian Brewer Files Patent for Cannabis Beer

    A Canadian company has filed a technology patent for the production of beer brewed from cannabis, using a method that sees the grains traditionally used to make beer completely replaced with marijuana, according to The Drinks Business.

    Province Brands filed the provisional patent for the “world’s first beers brewed from the cannabis plant” in July 2017, further stoking interest from the drinks industry in the burgeoning cannabis industry since Constellation bought a 10% stake in Canadian marijuana company Canopy Growth Corp for £141 million with plans to make cannabis-infused drinks.

    Chief executive Rob Sands believes cannabis will eventually be made legal for recreational use in all American states, with the company, like Province Brands, looking to get a head start on the competition.

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  • Can a Breath Test Smoke Out Stoned Drivers?

    In a sparely furnished, exceptionally clutter-free office in Oakland, California, Mike Lynn is blowing into a black plastic box the size of a rat trap. 

    “It takes a certain amount of breath,” he says after around eight seconds. “I can do it in one breath, some people take two.”

    Lynn, whose career has taken him from emergency medicine doctor to venture capitalist, is now the co-founder and CEO of Hound Labs, according to the Guardian.

    While alcohol breathalyzers are standard, so far there is no such equivalent for marijuana. And that’s because it is a tough problem: unlike alcohol, breath levels of THC – the psychoactive chemical in cannabis that makes people high – are much lower. Up until now it has taken large, costly instruments to detect.

    “The analogy is taking 20 Olympic swimming pools and finding one drop of water,” says Lynn. “But that is what we are so excited about – because we figured it out.”

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  • Ontario Proposal to Allow Cannabis in Hotel Rooms Could Jump-Start Pot Tourism

    Ontario’s proposal to allow people to consume marijuana in hotel rooms opens the door to a boom in cannabis tourism, says lawyer Matt Maurer.

    Maurer heads the cannabis law group at Minden Gross in Toronto, and says he knows businesspeople who are interested in opening cannabis-friendly hotels and resorts, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

    Maurer says he was surprised by the province’s proposal to loosen up the ban on consuming cannabis anywhere other than private homes. The government has also asked for public comments on whether to allow cannabis lounges.

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  • Woman Claims She Beat Cervical Cancer with Cannabis

    A woman claims she has cured her stage two cervical cancer with cannabis, according to the New Zealand Herald.

    Queensland woman Shona Leigh was advised by her doctors to undergo chemotherapy, the most common treatment for cancer.

    However, she dismissed her doctors' advice and took to the internet for alternative treatments.

    She discovered cannabis oil and was soon approached by someone who supplied her with the drug.

    Read the full story.

  • Mondo Cannabis Powder Is Weed Made for Taking at Work

    Mondo is marketed as an anti-anxiety supplement that you can take during work hours. Its website promises “anxiety relief without intoxication,” and the small, attractive glass jar is shown resting on a laptop, according to Bon Appetit.

    The powder contains coconut oil, cacao butter, and three parts of the cannabis plant: THC (the compound in cannabis that has psychoactive properties and is still illegal in many states) as well as CBD and CBN (compounds that don't have psychoactive properties but are used to treat pain and stress).

    The folks at Mondo start by extracting the cannabis compounds by simmering the cannabis in coconut oil, which gives the product a warm, pleasant aroma and taste. How they make it into a dissolvable powder is a trade secret.

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  • Developing a Roadside Test for Marijuana Intoxication Isn’t as Easy as It Sounds

    As the movement to legalize marijuana in the United States gains momentum, researchers worry about keeping the public safe, particularly on the roads.

    Recent studies in which marijuana users took controlled doses of cannabis in the lab have identified new biomarkers that can be used to estimate a person's recent cannabinoid intake, according to Science Daily. But, using those markers to judge cognitive and behavioral impairment is complex, say toxicologists in a commentary published on January 25 in a special issue of the journal Trends in Molecular Medicine on biomarkers of substance abuse.

    "There is no one blood or oral fluid concentration that can differentiate impaired and not impaired," says Marilyn Huestis, who spent over 20 years leading cannabinoid-related research projects at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "It's not like we need to say, 'Oh, let's do some more research and give you an answer.' We already know. We've done the research."

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