By Jon Hiltz
As marijuana legislation in Canada continues to develop, one of the most important and yet still unregulated categories is the edibles market.
Cannabis enthusiasts are aware that you don’t need to smoke or vape weed to enjoy its benefits. Ingesting cannabis is popular and in many instances preferred delivery method.
Because of this desired way to consume, the Canadian government knows that it needs to license and regulate edibles if they want to stamp out the black market. But the feds have been short on information regarding the legislation of edibles thus far.
Regardless of the current lack of direction, Canada’s licensed producers of cannabis are positioning themselves for this integral category well ahead of the July 2018 legalization deadline.
For example, earlier this month Canopy Growth Corporation announced a domestic and international licensing agreement with Isodiol International, a developer of both medicinal and consumer marijuana products.
Canopy now has the rights to manufacture and distribute Isodiol’s “Pot-O-Coffee” and “Pot-O-Tea” brands which are THC and CBD infused single-serving pods and bottled beverages. Isodiol has a “Pot-O-Coco” product as well, which is included in the deal.
“This distribution agreement has us positioned to increase our global footprint with the largest cannabis company in the world. We will continue to develop our Pot-O-Coffee product lines with ready to drink and cold brew products while working with Canopy Growth for international distribution channels,” stated Isodiol’s CEO Marcos Agramont in a press release.
Jordan Sinclair is the Director of Communications for Canopy Growth and he spoke to Marijuana.com about the partnership.
(Marijuana.com) Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there currently a ban on mixing cannabis with caffeine in Canada?
(Jordan Sinclair) There’s a ban on every [adult-use] cannabis product right now if you put it that way. What we need to do as Canopy Growth, is read the tea leaves a little bit and read into what the government says publicly. One of the policy objectives of this whole exercise is to get rid of the black market.
When they flip the switch they’re going to start with the same ones that are currently regulated for medical use, so bud and oils. But it logically flows that they would expand that list as they grapple with the complexities of the regulations.
Edibles present a new series of regulatory challenges, but once you get past that, if your true policy objective is to get rid of the black market, it just logically follows that you would start to include new things.
So Canopy is betting that, of course, consumers will be able to mix coffee and cannabis. Otherwise, those consumers are going to get their coffee with cannabis from unlicensed people.
That’s exactly it. You establish yourself as a producer that’s willing to play within the regulatory rules and as those rules expand, you position yourself to be ahead of the curve.
Do you believe the same will be true for mixing cannabis and alcohol or is caffeine a different animal?
Well, of course, they are different animals. Combining cannabis and alcohol does seem like it would be further along that same linear evolution, but again, if your goal is to get rid of the black market then these things will present themselves at one time or another.
That’s not to say that 100 percent of the categories are going to get in, but you have to be strategic.
I assume that at this point it’s a wait-and-see approach ahead of legislation?
That’s it now. We can do so much behind the scenes and then it’s just positions and being ready for when things evolve.
Marijuana.com wanted to get the opinion from a separate LP so we contacted Cam Battley, Executive Vice President of Aurora Cannabis.
Has Aurora thought about how you will tackle the edibles market?
Yes, we are developing a comprehensive strategy for entry into all of the market segments that will be permitted.
At the moment we are keeping our cards close to our vest. We plan on rolling out communication around our post-legalization strategy as we get closer to consumer legalization.
Clearly, Aurora has developments in the works.
It’s very much on our radar screen.
Adult-use marijuana products are scheduled to be on store shelves by July 2018 and all parties agree, including the Government of Canada that edibles are an important piece of the legalization puzzle.
