Marijuana Business Magazine - May-June 2018

P ortugal reflects both the potential and the relatively slow pace of business opportunities in the European Union. On one hand, Portugal decriminalized cannabis in 2001, although home growing and illegal trafficking can still be prosecuted. Cannabis also enjoys broad social acceptance in Portugal. And the nation has one of the lowest-cost labor forces in Europe, so there is inexpensive local know-how. However, Portugal has only recently begun to take steps to legalize medical marijuana, let alone make advances in developing an MMJ industry or move toward legalizing recreational cannabis. What does that mean for business opportunities? • They are very limited in the short term. • In the long term, however, Portugal could prove an inexpensive cultivation gateway to the European Union and potentially tens of millions of patients and recreational consumers. Tilray, the British Columbia producer owned by Seattle-based private equity firm Privateer Holdings, got its foot in the European Union door by establishing a wholly owned subsidiary in Cantanhede, Portugal. Privateer chose this city in cen- tral Portugal because of its favorable outdoor growing climate and low-cost- but-skilled workforce. Privateer plans to make Tilray Portugal Unipessoal Lda, as the new venture is called, a cornerstone of its international strategy. “Our campus in Portugal will serve as a hub supporting our cultivation, pro- cessing, research, packaging and export to other EU countries,” Privateer CEO Brendan Kennedy said last September at the time the company unveiled plans to build the $24 million facility. The same approach could potentially work for extraction and manufacturing companies, but retail is a far less certain category for now. PORTUGAL Industry: Medical Marijuana A Portugal GOING GL BAL 72 • Marijuana Business Magazine • May-June 2018