Debra Borchardt
The Green Market Report asked industry leaders what they think 2019 will bring to the cannabis industry.
Alex Waysl, CEO, Nexien Biopharma
“In 2019, following the signing of The Farm Bill, there will be increasingly clear FDA regulatory oversight on cannabis and cannabinoids. As a result of the FDA’s current stance per The Farm bill, we anticipate that the medical cannabis focus will shift toward a stronger pharmaceutical interest, built on cannabinoids as molecules with targeted therapeutic applications. With quickly changing perceptions about the various uses for cannabinoids and increased depth of knowledge about the therapeutic benefits of these molecules, we anticipate pre-clinical scientific research on cannabinoids and cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical formulation to be on the rise in 2019.”
Khurram Malik, CEO, Biome Grow
“Within the Canadian market, I think more provinces will embrace the private retail model in 2019, while still having some level of provincial oversight. Ontario’s move to private retail will be the catalyst for this. I also foresee larger Canadian cannabis companies quarterly results in the first half of 2019 will likely show a large amount of export-related sales to international medical markets where the margins are better for them than the domestic recreational market.”
Peter Vogel, CEO, Leafwire
“2019 will be the year of the brands. In the early stages of legalization, consumers would go into a dispensary and just buy anything; they were just excited to buy cannabis legally. Now, though, after many markets are maturing, experienced shoppers are starting to pick favorite brands and are developing loyalties. This means that it’s more important than ever for brands to have a wide breadth of offerings – applications, dosages, flavors, and more. Consumers will remain loyal as long as there is a large enough variety of products to choose from within a brand family. This also means that brands will be spending considerable amounts of money on marketing and promotional campaigns.”
Carly Bodmer, Director of Sales and Communications, GrowFlow
“Governing bodies will begin to see that recreational is a chance to highly regulate the cannabis market and collect taxes and there will be a push for federal legalization that will result in more uniform rules.”
