“A cannabis company is like any other
business.
There would be management positions,
cultivators, biochemists, research teams,
accounting teams and legal teams.
“There has been a huge demand for a skilled
workforce to create high-level THC products
indoors.”
EVEN WALL STREET IS COMING ON
BOARD
The commercial world of legal marijuana is
extending past retail workers and farmers,
with Wall Street seeing an influx in cannabis
related stocks.
“Pot stocks, as they are affectionally known,
can dominate the market because they can
have such hyperbolic growth periods,” Mr
Bernberg said.
“They are very similar to crypto growth
periods, except in this case they don’t come
crashing down.
They are only going to keep growing because
it’s an industry that keeps growing.”
Publicly traded cannabis companies have
reported strong sales since Canada and
several US states legalised recreational
marijuana.
The largest cannabis grower in the world by
market cap, Canopy Growth, earned more
than $A102m in gross recreational sales
during its last quarter.
Corona owner Constellation Brands has a 35
per cent stake in the company, while
Marlboro-owner Altria and Budweiser owner
AB InBev are also working in the newly legal
cannabis sector.
POT TOURISM IS BOOMING
Cannabis tourism has grown 51 per cent since
2014 in Colorado alone, according to a report
from the state’s department of revenue.
The report said state attracted some 6.5
million cannabis tourists, which attributed to
some of the $A8.5 billion in sales since legal
recreational marijuana sales begun in 2014 –
the revenue doesn’t include other money
spent across the city by tourists flocking for
the weed trade.
“While you have the status quo with different
rules on legality of cannabis use, you’re going
to have a migration of people to where it’s
legal,” he said.
“Now hotels popping up that promote
consumption and in the mini bar next to
bottles of booze, guests are offered THC
gummy bears in childproof packets.”
WHAT
ABOUT
THE
NEGATIVE
HEALTH IMPACTS?
The Australian Medical Association said
cannabis can be harmful and it supports
evidence-based trials for the use of medical
cannabis and believes use “should be seen
primarily as a health issue and not as a matter
for law enforcement”.
“The AMA acknowledges that cannabis use is
harmful and can lead to adverse chronic
health outcomes, including dependence,
withdrawal symptoms, early onset psychosis,
and the exacerbation of pre-existing psychotic
symptoms,”
a
spokeswoman
told
nine.com.au.
“The most appropriate response to cannabis
use should give priority to policies, programs
and regulatory approaches that reduce the
harms potentially associated with cannabis
use, and particularly the health-related
harms.”
In 2017, the National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering and Medicine completed the
world’s most comprehensive study into
marijuana, examining more than 10,000
scientific abstracts dating back to 1999.