Who knows what the future holds?
From beverages to creams, consumption of legal cannabis likely to take a variety of forms
Picture yourself enjoying a bottle of cannabis beer after a long day, as you rub THC cream into your sore muscles and your spouse dozes off thanks to a marijuana-derived sleep aid.
It’s a vision of the future of legal cannabis consumption that may be closer to reality than many people expect.
While Canadians will be able to buy marijuana for recreational purposes in retail shops across the country sometime later this year, it’s not just the pungent plant that’s making entrepreneurs and investment bankers salivate.
It’s also the chemical compounds: THC, CBD and dozens of other cannabinoids that can be extracted and reformulated into all manner of consumer and medical products.
At first, the legal products will be limited to dried bud, oil and gel caps — brownies and other edibles won’t be legal until at least mid-2019, if ever.
But Canadian companies are already busy dreaming up novel ways of getting buzzed or treating medical conditions — some of which could end up as mainstream as sparking a joint.
“Culturally speaking, we’re very comfortable consuming our intoxicants in a beverage format,” said Keith Merker, chief financial officer of Ontario licensed producer WeedMD Inc., which recently entered into a joint venture aimed at eventually supplying cannabis-based drinks in Canada.
“If we can produce a beverage which has similar effects as wine or beer, but with cannabinoids as the primary active ingredient, a substance that is known to be much less toxic than alcohol, all of a sudden there’s a massive market we’re looking at,” he said.
Merker is far from the only one eyeing marijuana-infused beverages. Canopy Growth Corp., the largest Canadian cannabis company, is developing drinkable products alongside U.S. alcohol giant Constellation Brands Inc., which took a 10-per-cent stake in Canopy last fall for $245 million.
"I bet the discussion about ‘edibles’ will actually become about ‘consumables’ and that’s because a shelf-stable liquid that has a well structured format of how strong it is and how quickly it affects you, will become something (regulators) are just much more comfortable governing,” said Canopy CEO Bruce Linton.
Across Canada, provincial liquor authorities are overseeing recreational cannabis sales, Linton pointed out.
"You can’t overestimate the effect of who governs, and how they govern you will impact formats of product,” he said.
The opportunities aren’t only in alcohol-like products, say some cannabis beverage enthusiasts. You only have to look to states where cannabis is legal in the U.S. to see a range of products, from CBD-infused energy drinks to THC tea.
Even the companies most bullish on beverages, however, don’t expect they’ll be legal in Canada for at least 18 months.
And, like brownies or cannabis candies, their ultimate legality is still a question mark for the federal government.
In the meantime, other product forms are catching entrepreneurial eyes.
"Round 2 (of legalization) will include vape pens. And that’s where you’re going to get a significant growth in the off take of product,” said Vic Neufeld, CEO of Aphria Inc, whose company is developing both refillable and disposable e-cigarette-style vape products.
Vaporizers, especially those that are liquid based, promise higher margins for the companies like Aphria.
There’s also the likelihood that they’ll draw new users into the market, especially as they grow smaller, more stylish and more socially acceptable.
New forms and methods of consumption aren’t only coming on the recreational side of the market.
An even bigger shift in usage could come on the medical side, where researchers are looking at everything from nasal sprays to patches.
"The remarkable thing about cannabinoids is you don’t need a lot, you really only need a very small amount to affect important changes physiologically,” said Eric Adams, CEO of InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., a B.C-based biopharmaceutical company looking at cannabinoid treatments for Glaucoma, facial pain, and the rare skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa.
“If you take something like an Oxycodone, it zonks your whole body, and hopefully gets to the point of where the pain is and treats that as well . ... Same thing with smoking marijuana,” said Adams.
The focus for pharmaceutical-grade products will be getting cannabinoids to the spot that needs treatment in an efficient, controlled manner, he said.
InMed, for instance, is looking at creams and liquids delivered through eyedroppers. And the company isn’t even planning to extract cannabinoids from plants; it’s synthesizing them within E. coli bacteria, similar to how insulin is produced.
The promise of cannabinoid-based medicine is already drawing major pharmaceutical companies into the space.
Last summer Canadian drug producer Apotex Inc. teamed up with licensed producer CannTrust Holdings, and this month, Sandoz Canada Inc., a subsidiary of global pharma powerhouse Novartis AG, signed a partnership deal with B.C. LP Tilray.
Scientists are already looking at cannabinoid treatments for a broad range of conditions, from epilepsy to multiple sclerosis, chemotherapy-induced nausea to post traumatic stress disorder.
And interest from Big Pharma means more clinical trials are on the horizon.
“Anybody who sleeps poorly, do you really like Diazepine-based sleep aids like Ambien? Or would you like something that’s a little bit less disruptive?” Canopy’s Linton asked a meeting of the Economic Club of Canada in early March, pointing out the potentially massive market for cannabis-derived sleep aids, pain relievers and anxiety medications. Linton, who expects Canopy to have more top-line revenue from medical marijuana than from recreational in three years, said those assessing the future of cannabis based solely on past forms of consumption are underestimating its potential.
“What they’re talking about is what the biker sells in a baggie. They’re not talking about what comes in a format that’s super disruptive.”