Marijuana Business Magazine - February 2018

By Matt Lamers T¬PS O pportunity beckons overseas for medical marijuana producers. The global MMJ market could be worth more than $140 billion over the next 15 years, reckons the Toronto- based brokerage firm Eight Capital. About two dozen countries have medical marijuana laws on the books, and more than a dozen have pending laws. Canadian marijuana executives share advice on how to position your medical cannabis company for overseas markets Canadian medical cannabis produc- ers, in particular, have gotten a big head start on the overseas market. At least a dozen Canadian companies are jockey- ing to do business abroad in MMJ markets including Germany, Israel, Colombia and elsewhere. In addition to exporting dried flower and oil prod- ucts from Canada, they are building cultivation facilities in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. But it’s also worth noting that expanding internationally can be: • Costly. • A major drain on a company’s resources. • Extremely time consuming. Brendan Kennedy knows that first- hand.The CEO of the British Colum- bia-based licensed producer Tilray logged 300,000 miles in 2017 in search of overseas business opportunities. “We got dirty, we worked hard, we went to places that people didn’t go to and talked to people that others didn’t talk to,” said Kennedy, who also is CEO 68 • Marijuana Business Magazine • February 2018

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