Top 40 list will recognize influential cannabis industry leaders who are pioneering the growth, development and innovation of the cannabis industry, and celebrate their tireless, bold and innovative commitment to taking the industry to the next level.
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“The cannabis industry is full of talent, enthusiasm and expertise, and we are excited to welcome the innovators, pioneers and dedicated industry members who are truly laying the groundwork for the future of cannabis,” says Randy Rowe, president of Grow Up Conference. & Expo.

Leaders can be nominated now through the Grow Up Conference website, with the call for entries closing on December 15, 2023. A panel of judges will carefully review all entries, and winners will be announced in January 2024.

Cannabis industry professionals are invited to nominate themselves or nominate an employee or colleague. Nominees must be a Canadian citizen, immigrant or resident. Canadians working globally are eligible.

A leader can be a person in any position in the cannabis industry who has been instrumental in the success of a business, product or initiative. Retailers, manufacturers, business experts, owners, managers, investors, suppliers, innovators, technology gurus, educators, researchers and other active leaders in the cannabis industry qualify as potential candidates, regardless of how extensive their history in the field may be. Only members of the cannabis industry will be eligible.

Individuals not nominated by Grow Up’s confidential decision may also be shortlisted.

Nominees will be notified by January 1, 2024, and must maintain the confidentiality of their inclusion until the official announcement of the 2024 Grow Up Canada Top 40 Cannabis Leaders list.Each nominee will be asked to provide additional information.

In addition, the winners of the Grow Up Industry Award 1 were announced on Sunday, October 2023: Ted Smith, Cannabis Buyers Club of Victoria, was recognized for his unwavering dedication to cannabis and patients with a lifetime achievement award, while Tommy Chong won the Legends. of Cannabis award, and Violet Wild Cannabis Co. retailer on Vancouver Island was honoured with Weedpool’s Independent Retailer of the Year award.

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This will be followed by hundreds of exhibiting companies and fresh experiences and events on the Lift show floor throughout Friday, January 13 and Saturday, January 14, 2023. Of note, the new Brand Discovery Pavilion is the perfect place to discover new products, including a Micro and Small Batch Manufacturing Zone. In addition, the new Retail Zone will provide visitors with unrivaled close-up with suppliers in a vibrant environment, while cannabis retailers will be able to cost-effectively connect with new audiences.

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“We have a lot of technological advances in pre-packaging on display,” says Christina Januzi, director of CWCBExpo. – I think companies have managed to achieve a pretty high level of automation and robotization. The equipment here is quite sophisticated.”

This year’s expo hall looks more like a sorting room with machines of varying sizes for small businesses and large companies. Sorting marijuana is a thing of yesterday, Tony Pagni of Perfectionist Rolling Equipment makes clear.

“Our machine is designed for mass production and is capable of producing 800 to 1,100 cigarettes per hour, depending on size and settings. Here on the touch screen, you simply select the parameters and set all the possible options,” shares Pagni.

Automation of the fast growing industry is the prevailing trend. In earlier years, companies competed to produce products containing cannabidiol, which has no psychoactive properties but helps in relaxation. Cannabidiol-infused edible candies were on display at this show as well. Kristen Foley of Melt to Make introduces semi-finished cannabidiol-infused candy.

“Our product is for those who want to make edible candy and don’t want to buy pre-made “gummy bears” from a recipe. We have a solution. These semi-finished products are 98% ready.”

Canada allows the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Dashida Dawson represents Cannabis NYC at the forum and she says the market is expanding as public attitudes in Canada towards medical cannabis change:

“We are moving the pre-existing market into a new framework. We want to make sure there are no unnecessary barriers, but at the same time we want to protect the public and people’s health. We want to make sure we have the best and best quality product on the market, and of course we want to monitor how the stores are operating.”

“People need to be educated,” adds Christina Januzi, director of CWCBExpo, “Tax dollars from businesses can be used for education, to improve people’s lives.

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About six per cent of Canadians use cannabis daily – the same percentage as before legalization. The proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds who use cannabis hasn’t changed, either – one in three still do.

But teenagers 15-17 years old began to smoke half as much – their number fell from 20 to 10 percent. Only older Canadians have started buying more marijuana.

Meanwhile, sales across the country are on the rise, with most orders being made online. In October 2020, a record 270 million dollars worth of cannabis was sold in Canada. Professor Boudreau sees marijuana as a way to relieve stress during a pandemic and lockdown.

Supply still far outstrips demand, so companies are taking losses

In the years before legalization, investors poured millions of dollars into infrastructure to grow cannabis on an industrial scale. By the end of last year, there were more than a billion grams of legal cannabis left in storage facilities across Canada that can’t be sold. Approximately 30 million grams are consumed every month in Canada. Producers were growing cannabis at a high rate even before stores were licensed to sell it and opened. Last year, they harvested about 360 million grams.

The fact that marijuana businesses are regulated differently in different Canadian provinces has also played a role. For example, in Alberta, license applications were accepted as early as March 2018, so cannabis stores opened quickly.

In Ontario, the most populous province, retail licenses were issued much more slowly. And sales here are regulated differently: the Ontario Government Cannabis Store (OCS) buys cannabis from licensed producers, sets the price of the product, and then sells it to private retailers.

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These technologies have formed the basis of an industry called canntech (cannabis tech). In this article, I analyze the main segments of this market from the perspective of an investor and founder of a technology platform for investing in the cannabis industry.

Canntech for marijuana production, delivery and consumption

The term canntech generally refers to three main categories:

• Cannabis consumption devices, such as vaporizers and dispensers (PAX, Dosist);
• e-commerce platforms and delivery apps (Eaze);
• home cannabis cultivation systems (Leaf).

Industrial cannabis cultivation equipment is also sometimes referred to as canntech – but more often, the term is used specifically to refer to digital solutions or devices that make it easier for the end customer to purchase and consume marijuana.

Cannabis consumption devices

There are many ways to consume cannabis for medical and recreational purposes: pipes, vape devices, edibles (edible products containing THC), and oils. Not too long ago, electronic devices have also joined the list.

One of them – vaporizer, or vape – is rapidly gaining popularity in the U.S. and Canada due to the almost complete absence of odor and reduction of harmful effects of smoking. As with e-cigarettes, these devices heat marijuana to a temperature sufficient to release the active ingredient.

Dispensing devices occupy a separate niche in canntech. Dosing pens (Dosist) and dosed vaporizers (Syqe medical) are used primarily for medical purposes.

Medical cannabis is also actively developing breathalyzers, which detect the level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other active substances in the patient’s body based on the patient’s breath (Hound Labs).

Innovative methods of cannabis use are attracting the attention of venture capital and private equity funds: for example, in the last year alone, vaporizer manufacturer PAX Labs has raised $420 million from Tao Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management and other investors.

Convenient purchase and delivery

According to unofficial estimates, there are about 2,000 legal cannabis producers in the United States. Most of them – about 700 per state – are located in California and Colorado. They mostly sell their products through retail outlets, so-called marijuana dispensaries. There is still very little technology that effectively connects the grower to the end consumer.

Leading this segment in the U.S. is Eaze, an app for ordering cannabis with home delivery. The company raised $65 million in a C round in late 2019, making it one of the top contenders for that very “Uber for marijuana” status.

One of Eaze’s most promising competitors is Dutchie, a marijuana delivery startup that operates in 18 states. This September, the company raised $15 million from Gron Ventures and several other venture capital funds. Dutchie’s investor is also John Oringer, founder and CEO of Shutterstock.

At-home marijuana cultivation devices

The movement to legalize cannabis has made it possible to grow marijuana at home already in many countries around the world. For example, last week the capital of Australia voted to legalize the personal use of cannabis, which implies the right to grow 2 bushes of the plant at home. Thailand is also now considering a bill that would allow each household to plant 6 bushes on their property.

This trend is generating demand for home cannabis cultivation devices.

Both traditional hardware manufacturers – for example, Cloudponics introduced a specialized cannabis growing module in 2018 – and tech startups are interested in this market. In May of this year, Leaf raised $4.5 million to develop a plug-n-plant system that allows you to monitor the growth of cannabis bushes from your smartphone.

The post What is Canntech – Technology for the Cannabis Industry appeared first on CanBiz.

Proponents say the new situation will help deal with the black market. Canada was already the country with the highest rate of marijuana use, especially among young people. Canadians spent 5.7 billion Canadian dollars ($4.6 billion) on the drug in 2017, and only a small fraction of the total was purchased for medicinal purposes.

Canadians bought up all the imported marijuana in stores in a couple of days. The authorities did not suspect that the demand for it would be so great. After the law on the legalization of marijuana came into force, the stores in Canada bought up all the drug in just a few days, reports the Independent.

The queues from those wishing to buy cannabis were so long that the police patrolled the places of its realization and calmed those who did not get it.

The head of the state program for the legalization of marijuana Bill Blair stressed that Canada did not succeed in meeting the demand of citizens, and not enough marijuana was brought to the stores.

It is known that the girl sold 30 boxes of cookies in line for the drug.

Recall, on October 17 in Canada began to operate the law on the legalization of cannabis. The country became the second country in the world after Uruguay and the first country of the “G7”, where you can freely sell and purchase marijuana.

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