Billboards talking up medicinal cannabis
A new Auckland advertisement tips medicinal cannabis sales to be the next hot thing and has urged mum and dad investors to put their money behind the product.
Greenfern Medicinal Marijuana yesterday put up billboards across Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton and Christchurch, likening the product’s future sale to striking gold or oil.
“We’ve struck oil in Taranaki. Want to invest?”, the billboards read.
Competition is heating up between a series of start-up companies hoping to grow and sell cannabis now a bill has passed opening the way for the plant’s processing in New Zealand once regulations are in place.
Greenfern plans to grow cannabis in Taranaki and has so far raised about $600,000 through a crowdfunding campaign finishing at the end of the month. It hopes to raise as much as $2 million.
Director Dan Casey said cannabis sales were already taking off in places such as Canada and California.
“People are predicting it will boom,” he said. “You can liken it to the gold rush back in the 1800s — it’s somewhat of a green rush.”
The company’s website said pundits expect medicinal marijuana products to explode across the globe and become a more than US$55.8 billion ($82.7b) industry by 2025.
East Coast-based Hikurangi Cannabis — the first company to be granted a medicinal cannabis licence — has also just been given permission to grow 16 new varieties of cannabis.
The Ministry of Health’s amendment to Hikurangi’s licence included permission to grow some of the first high-THC strains to be imported under new biosecurity rules.
The new range of plants included five varieties with high levels of THC — the main psychoactive compound in cannabis — four high CBD, high-THC varieties and seven low-THC strains.
Hikurangi managing director Manu Caddie said it was important to have plants with diverse genetics for “research and breeding efforts”.
Another start-up, Helius Therapeutics — bought into by rich-lister Guy Haddleton — last month became the first cannabis company to advertise in NZ when its “Cannabis is medicine” campaign splashed across Auckland’s billboards.
Helius executive director Paul Manning said at the time the campaign would feature eight Kiwi patients, parents and advocates in support of cannabis.
“We want to highlight that it will be mainstream people who will use medicinal cannabis, which will soon become a very mainstream product.”
Greenfern’s Casey also said his firm aimed to create awareness and “break down the stigma of the cannabis plant and get it out there in the mainstream”.
“Right now I think there are two products available in NZ and they are both from overseas and they are very expensive,” he said.
Growing the product locally could reduce costs, he said, and eventually lead the Government to subsidise the product for its medical benefits.