Cura Cannabis Solutions Is Riding The Wave Of Cannabis Oil

The following is an interview conducted between Green Market Report Editor-in-chief Debra Borchardt and Cura Cannabis Solution CEO Nitin Khanna and President Cameron Forni. The interview has been condensed and edited for publication purposes.

Khanna:

Cura is a company focused exclusively on cannabis oil. We are not vertically integrated, but we are very horizontally focused on all things related to cannabis oil. We offer products to both consumers that range from 0% THC in a pure CBD product all the way up to 100% THC oil. We have products at the 20% level similar to the low THC edible movement. Really our area of expertise is in the extraction of oils, and then the delivery of oils to consumers through vape cartridges, but then we are also are large wholesalers of oil to edible companies. Most of the large edible companies in Oregon are going into California and Nevada use us to buy cannabis oil for their product.

Our area of expertise is in making really light colored oil that is for the edible companies almost tasteless and has no odor so their food products are not changed. Then we make everything from food spectrum oil to terpene added oil flavored vape cartridges for the consumers.

We work with a lot of different farms and working with farms is one of the ways that we keep the ecosystem strong. To give you a sense a of the size and scale there are about 240 licensed legal farms in Oregon of which 180 of them sell all their trim product to us to make into oil. Cameron just launched our California business back in March/February so he is focused heavily on the supply chain first. The reason being is as states legalize you are moving from a state of mind where pesticides kind of don’t matter to that’s all that matters as you move into a legal infrastructure. Really ensuring a clean supply actually is more effective in gaining market share as the state transitions from medical to legal to recreational than people give it credit for I think.

Borchardt:

Looking at the Oregon market, when you say you are a large buyer of trim how many pounds would you say that you buy in a month?

Khanna:

We can assume that Oregon consumes all the excess supplies. Think about it. You have 15,000 pounds of input product. Growers usually are growing 50, 60, 70,000 pounds a month that can spare that much product for oil. So, it’s about 50, 60 70% of product that is being sold for oil in the state.

We are right now looking at data that shows that so far through 2017 in Oregon total sales have been about $45 million of which oils is $29 million and that’s about 50% of the market. And the remaining 50% is flower. Last year flower made up about 65% of the market. So you can see that even in a year the shift has gone from 65% flower to about 50% flower.

Forni:

I was saying with the Oregon market we convey around 12% of the oil market and growing. In California, we’re seeing about 19% of the market. In Nevada, the new state we entered, we’re seeing around 25% plus just in vaporizer cartridges. Edibles come in shortly after that.

Just for what we are seeing it is very difficult to consume flower in states like Nevada with all the tourism coming in. You can’t really smoke flower with your room. There is really no private place you can consume flower where you are not being a nuisance or burden to people. So that’s why you are seeing a larger increase in the edibles and vaporizer cartridges. That and its more discreet. You won’t get a fine for $250 for consuming in your room. There is just nowhere private and that’s why we have seen an increase in oil sales in the Nevada market.

Borchardt:

I think it’s just ironic that you can smoke a cigarette in the casino, but not cannabis.

Khanna:

Our assumption is Nevada is going to be the biggest vape cartridge market probably anywhere because even with edibles the consumer who is traveling to Vegas to have a good time their interest isn’t going out to the concert and the shows and playing gambling and so on. They are not going to take products that have too high a THC level, and so that they are sitting in their room not being able to go out.

Really the product that we are launching in our Nevada market is really our lowest THC product. Its called Social. And the Social product comes in vanilla, watermelon, blueberry, and strawberry. The exhale has no cannabis smell to it, and so the people are able to consume without actually being able to … You can’t pick up on the fact that they are consuming cannabis. It’s a very discreet disposable cartridge and we believe that having that low THC vape cartridge out there as our initial launch product allows people to be both social, which is the name of the product, and be out and about. And that’s why in Nevada that product will actually do better than both edibles and flower because again with edibles you have that issue of how … what it’s gonna take you, and when you’ll get there.