Title: Canada’s ruling party rejects controversial amendments to cannabis bill
Author: MJ Biz
Date: 12 June 2018
Extract:
Canada’s federal government is rejecting the Senate’s amendments to the pending marijuana law that industry sources said would make it harder for legal recreational marijuana to overtake the black market.
The Senate’s version of the Cannabis Act was approved with almost four dozen amendments. While the ruling Liberal government will accept the bulk of the changes, the most controversial ones are unlikely to make the final bill.
Amendments the Liberal government plans to reject include:
- Requiring parliamentary approval of new cannabis products (presumably including edibles and infused).
- Prohibiting “brand stretching” – the use of cannabis brand elements that are not on packaging or accessories.
- Making public the names of shareholders who hold more than 5% of any class of shares of a cannabis company.
- Giving regulators the authority to cap THC potency for certain products.
- Allowing provinces to ban home cultivation.
Title: Reverse Mergers Bring American Cannabis Companies to Canada
Author: ICBC
Date: 13 June 2018
URL: https://internationalcbc.com/reverse-mergers-bring-american-cannabis-companies-to-canada/
Extract:
t’s no secret that the Canadian federal government has been a global leader in implementing progressive cannabis policies compared to the rest of the world. Canada legalized medical cannabis in 2001 while the United States still hasn’t caught up at the national level although a majority of states have a medical law on the books, and the Great White North is set to legalize adult-use cannabis commerce this summer.
The establishment of a stable federal marijuana policy has provided businesses access to financial markets, which has led some American cannabis companies to conduct reverse takeovers (or reverse mergers, if you prefer) with Canadian businesses, opening up access to markets and capital. The California-based retailer MedMen recently pulled off a reverse merger and Oregon-based Chalice Farms previously did the same thing with Canada-based Golden Leaf Holdings (even though such mergers may seem like the Canadian company is absorbing the American entity). Once cannabis companies are officially located in Canada, they have access to markets such as the Canadian Securities Exchange as SFGate.com’s Smell the Truth reported:
