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Tuesday 28 February 2023

Investor Ideas #Potcasts 649, #Cannabis News- Interview with CEO of NorCal Cannabis

 



 

Investor Ideas #Potcasts 649, #Cannabis News- Interview with CEO of NorCal Cannabis

 

Delta, Kelowna, BC, February 28, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire), investorideas.com,  a global news source covering leading sectors including marijuana and hemp stocks and its potcast site  release today’s podcast edition of  cannabis news and stocks to watch plus insight from thought leaders and experts.

 

Listen to the podcast:

https://www.investorideas.com/Audio/Podcasts/2023/022823-Cannabis.mp3

 

Read this in full at https://www.investorideas.com/news/2023/cannabis-potcasts/02281Interview-NorCal.asp

 

Hear Investor ideas cannabis potcast on iTunes  

 

Hear the investor ideas potcast on Spotify

 

Today’s podcast overview/transcript:

 

In today’s podcast Investorideas interviews Jigar Patel, CEO of NorCal Cannabis, one of the largest cannabis operators in California and number one seller of indoor flower, powering beloved brands such as lolo, 1Lyfe, and Panacea, where we discussed surviving in the California cannabis industry, brand creation, inflation on cannabis sales and California cannabis cafes.

 

Patel has over 20 years experience in the cannabis industry and has been a key player in California’s explosive legal market. Founder of four cannabis businesses as well as being an industry leader in bringing local regulatory compliance to many jurisdictions including San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and Sonoma County, Patel’s leadership brought NorCal’s revenue from $2m to over $70m in just three years.

 

Patel began his cannabis journey in true organic fashion as he stated, “I guess my cannabis journey really began with consumption of the product at a young age. Like a lot of folks in my teens, I started trying cannabis and for me it was really an eye-opening thing. As the son of immigrants, I sort of had this path where I was supposed to, go be a doctor or a pharmacist and get a house and get married. And that was what the immigrant story was of the American dream. And I think, cannabis opened me up to a whole world, which I didn't really see prior to that and introduced me to lots of folks from different backgrounds.”

 

“When I went to school at Purdue, I ended up meeting some folks that were growing cannabis back then. Obviously in those days it was highly illegal, and some of those same guys actually had moved to California in the late nineties because of Prop 215 here, and I stayed in contact with them, learned about what was going on in the space and quickly knew that I wanted to be in it. I really dove into the culture of cannabis here in Northern California. Really seeing what it was about and what was this whole prop 215 thing, right? Not many people in those days really understood what it meant, and it was the quasi-legal way of providing medical cannabis to patients. So I quickly realised this was where I wanted to be, moved out here in the early two thousands, then jumped into the political realm and started to understand how I could help effectuate change at the local level and worked with Sonoma County, worked with the city of San Francisco and a lot of other cannabis policies early on. Fast forward to 2015 and I jumped in with two feet and built a grow in San Francisco and that was really the beginning of North Cal. During that time, I'd come across my other two co-founders, Blair Carter and Doug Cortina, who were doing a very similar thing in the same neighbourhood in San Francisco. We quickly realised we were stronger together and that initial partnership was at the beginning of NorCal and today we operate about a hundred thousand square feet of production with almost 30,000 square feet of canopy in our Santa Rosa campus.”

 

When asked about how NorCal helps differentiate itself from the competition and work towards true brand creations, Patel commented, “for us lead cultivators that have been working with for almost 20 some years, we've stayed together as a team, which is very rare in this space. So we operate three brands. One Life, panacea and Lolo. Really that's the good, better, best of indoor flower, and along with that we also make other products, but our core capabilities are in indoor cultivation. We really believe we are some of the most efficient operators in this space. Because we are efficient it allows us to, especially in our brand Lola, actually lead with quality, consistency, but also price.Because we are so efficient at what we do, we're able to provide that value to the consumer consistently and we believe we have the makings of a real brand. I don't think we've truly seen a real brand in cannabis yet and I think we've latched onto something really good with Lolo. I think it resonates with the consumer. I think the value proposition is perfect.”

 

When asked about the difficulties when it comes to marketing a brand like Lolo, Patel went on to say, “when we started NorCal, like everybody else, we'd raised a bunch of money and we had brought on a strong marketing team. I think that even when you talked to those folks that were part of that marketing team early on, I think what they will tell you is, everybody had grand ideas for how to really market cannabis, but nobody had ever really done it. They didn't understand how the system worked, they didn't understand the supply chain and as we brought in these great marketers, who came from very diverse backgrounds, I think what they realised quickly was this wasn't digital marketing, this wasn't Twitter, this wasn't any of the stuff that they were used to. This was a knife fight, those were their words. I think it became clear that these monster marketing budgets weren't really doing much. They weren't moving the needle, right? You would get media play out of it. They'd get a lot of attraction, but the ROI of actually selling cannabis wasn't there.”

 

Patel continued, “I think what we did, which was a little different, was when we did our marketing push early on, we spent a lot of time on business intelligence. What we were able to do there was utilise some of our historical knowledge of what happens in the space, combined with data that we finally had access to, and we were able to look and say, what does a consumer really want? What does a power consumer want? If you look at the power consumer in California, it always came back that they cared about quality, consistency, and price, and a bell went off for us. We don't have to do much. We don't have to spend a bunch of money on marketing. If we can hit those three things and provide that to the consumer, it will resonate. If you look at Lolo over the last year, we sold almost 1 million eighths of flour, which is pretty crazy to think about in a state like California where competition is crazy, and the fact that it's indoor flower I think says more. When we look at other states and realise that most states don't have the ability to grow outdoors, you start to see how Lolo can actually be a brand that actually resonates nationwide, right? As long as the feds don't legalise, which they’re not gonna do anytime soon in our opinion, you'll be able to have, I almost think of it like Coca-Cola bottling plants, different indoor facilities in different states producing the same type of product.”

 

In recent news, a new bill introduced in the state legislature by San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney, Assembly Bill 374, would allow cannabis lounges and retailers to offer food, drink, and live entertainment.

 

When asked about this new change for the Cannabis Cafes, Patel said, “I think the cafes are great. I think the one issue that we've seen is just the inability to have food and or drinks really takes the recreational aspect out of it. I'm a firm believer in letting people do what they wanna do and I think the more we can normalise that and allow that, the better it is for the plant.”

 

California’s cannabis industry, though still the largest legal market in the world, has been facing some issues in the legal industry over the past few years.

 

When asked what measures the state could take towards addressing some of the industrie’s issues, Patel commented, “I think there needs to be a reduction of the excise tax. What they did for cultivation tax in California was great, but again, it needs to be passed onto the consumer and I think that the conversation needs to change from this just being about tax revenue to really about jobs and employment.”

 

“We have ways to tax and make money as a state. What we really want are jobs and I think that mindset needs to change and people need to start looking at us, not as just a source of income for the state, but actually as citizens” Patel concluded.

 

No matter what market you’re looking at, there is always a discussion about Black Market cannabis and in California this is a large issue.

 

When asked about how he sees the black market either developing or fading out, Patel said, “People have been growing weed for 30 and 40 years on their parents' properties. You have this generation of folks where this was their life. When you think about the black market going away, what I do think is, I don't think you're gonna start seeing younger and younger growers getting into the game again. I think that the old timers either will make the transition or at some point give up. I think just if I look regionally, and we pay a lot of attention to what happens in the black market because it's all one market at the end of the day, when I talk to the grow shop owners or just locals around here, what I am seeing is a lot of those 10 lighters and 20 lighters and even 50 lighters that used to proliferate the Sonoma Napa or Sonoma Mendo landscape aren't there anymore and people have no intent of putting 'em back up.”

 

To keep updated on NorCal’s business and brands or to find out more information about NorCal Cannabis visit their website here.

About Investorideas.com - Big Investing Ideas

We publish breaking stock news, stock research, guest posts and create original top rated investing podcasts, plus sector tag articles featuring up and coming companies and industry leaders.  Investor Idea’s original branded content includes the Crypto Corner Podcast , Play by Play Sports Podcast , Cannabis News and Stocks on the Move Podcast ,  Cleantech and Climate Change Podcast,  Exploring Mining Podcast , Betting on Gaming Stocks Podcast and the AI Eye Podcast.  We also create free investor stock directories for AI and tech, biotech, cannabis, cleantech, crypto, defense, gaming, health and wellness, mining, oil and gas, sports and water. 

 

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Thursday 23 February 2023

Cannabis Stock News: Vext Science (CSE: VEXT) Receives Certificate of Occupancy for 17,000 Square Feet Eloy, Arizona Cultivation Facility

Cannabis Stock News: Vext Science (CSE: VEXT) Receives Certificate of Occupancy for 17,000 Square Feet Eloy, Arizona Cultivation Facility

Investor Ideas #Potcasts 648, #Cannabis News and #Stocks on the Move- (CSE: $TRUL.C) (NASDAQ: $LSDI)

 



Investor Ideas #Potcasts 648, #Cannabis News and #Stocks on the Move- (CSE: $TRUL.C) (NASDAQ: $LSDI)

 

Delta, Kelowna, BC, February 23rd, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire), investorideas.com,  a global news source covering leading sectors including marijuana and hemp stocks and its potcast site  release today’s podcast edition of  cannabis news and stocks to watch plus insight from thought leaders and experts.

 

Listen to the podcast:

https://www.investorideas.com/Audio/Podcasts/2023/022323-Cannabis.mp3

 

Read this in full at https://www.investorideas.com/news/2023/cannabis-potcasts/02231TRUL-LSDI.asp

 

Hear Investor ideas cannabis potcast on iTunes  

 

Hear the investor ideas potcast on Spotify

 

Today’s podcast overview/transcript:

 

In today’s podcast we look at some of the major industry news highlights from last week and this week including advertising on twitter and the state of Canadian cannabis industry.

 

In a big piece of news for the cannabis industry, Twitter announced earlier last week that it will be allowing “approved” and state-legal cannabis companies and other advertisers to post ads in the U.S. for regulated THC and CBD products, accessories and services, the social media platform has disclosed.

 

“We permit approved Cannabis (including CBD– cannabinoids) advertisers to target the United States” provided a slew of conditions are met, Twitter said on its website under the heading, “Drugs and drug paraphernalia.”

 

AdCann, a cannabis marketing and advertising website based in Toronto, first reported the development in a social media post.

 

AdCann noted that, “effective immediately,” Twitter will permit “advertisers to promote brand preference and informational cannabis-related content” for certain products and services, including:

      CBD and similar cannabinoid products.

      THC and similar products.

      Cannabis-related products and services, including delivery services, labs, events and more.

 

“American cannabis companies, brands and purveyors will need to pass through a Twitter advertiser approval process to ensure they are legitimate and educated on the platform,” AdCann reported.

 

“Once approved, industry marketers will have access to Twitter’s entire suite of advertising products including promoted tweets, promoted product opportunities, location-specific takeovers, in-stream video sponsorships and partner publication features.”

 

“Cannabis is a leading topic on @Twitter and should be a big channel for #cannabis advertising, depending on the details of the program. #progress,”

Rosie Mattio, CEO of Mattio Communications, a cannabis-focused marketing and communications firm in New York City, tweeted: “Kudos to @twitter for being the first major social network to welcome Cannabis advertisements.”

 

Under its new guidelines, Twitter said that cannabis advertisers – presumably companies – will be subject to a variety of restrictions and conditions:

      “Advertisers must be licensed by the appropriate authorities, and pre-authorized by Twitter.

      “Advertisers may only target jurisdictions in which they are licensed to promote these products or services online.

      “Advertisers may not promote or offer the sale of Cannabis (including CBD– cannabinoids). Exception: Ads for topical (non-ingestible) hemp-derived CBD topical products containing equal to or less than the 0.3% THC government-set threshold.

      “Advertisers are responsible for complying with all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and advertising guidelines.

      “Advertisers may not target customers under the age of 21.”

 

 

Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (CSE: TRUL) (OTCQX: TCNNF) became the first multi-state operator in the cannabis industry to launch an advertising campaigns on Twitter.

 

"Trulieve is very excited and encouraged by Twitter's decision to update its policies and allow cannabis companies to advertise across the platform," said Gina Collins, Trulieve's Chief Marketing Officer. "Having a global social media platform recognize our industry is another step forward in the normalization of cannabis in the U.S. We proudly launched a multi-state advertising campaign today to become the first company in the cannabis industry on Twitter. As state-by-state cannabis regulations inform how operators can participate in the advertising space, we expect to follow in other legally approved states."

Trulieve Chief Executive Officer Kim Rivers said on Twitter: "On behalf of #Trulieve and the entire #CannabisIndustry THANK YOU to @elonmusk for this historic #PolicyChange & partnership. The opportunity to advertise on #Twitter means reaching more individuals & raising more awareness of the benefits of #cannabis. Onward!"

 

 

In other recent news, last week five Canadian cannabis sector CEOs joined a press conference, organised by the Cannabis Council of Canada, Wednesday on Parliament Hill to discuss the extent of layoffs and facility closures in the industry.

 

"You're hearing from producers here today because we as growers and manufacturers sit at the heart of the cannabis supply chain," said President and CEO of British Columbia company Pure Sunfarms, Mandesh Dosanjh. "We need to be healthy in order for the whole system to thrive but that's not reality. Producers stand here in peril. Canadian cannabis is in peril."

 

High excise taxes have been one of the biggest challenges for businesses, the CEOs said in Wednesday’s press conference, adding the 2.3 percent excise tax rate has become too costly, particularly after a year of increased inflation rates.

Jonathan Wilson, CEO of New Brunswick company Crystal Cure, called for the federal government to reconsider the tax rate as he says it's not only pushing away current businesses but eliminating the path for new producers to enter and grow the sector.

"It's not only a significant burden for producers like us, but it's a barrier of entry for new producers to come into the legal market," Wilson said.

 

"We're paying a regulatory fee, which was premised on a profitable industry, which tobacco and alcohol don't pay," President of the Cannabis Council of Canada, George Smitherman said Wednesday.

 

A 2022 report found that Canadians investing in cannabis businesses collectively lost more than $131 billion. Industry leaders said they built their business on the federal government's promises for a profitable industry but now that profits are shaking, they're hoping for immediate action.

 

"What happened to Smiths Falls can happen to any entity in Canada," CEO of Truro Cannabis, Leonard Walter, said. "There [are] federal and provincial regulations that both need to be worked on. There [are] solutions, we just need folks talking."

 

After a nearly 12-month delay, Health Canada announced in September 2022 it would be conducting a legislative review of the Cannabis Act.

 

Smitherman said while there has been data collected and surveys created to increase awareness on the problems in the industry, he hopes it'll be enough to be taken into consideration ahead of the 2023 budget.

 

In related news, The Ontario Cannabis Store announced that it will be reducing its price margins in a bid to help pot retailers compete with the illicit market.

 

The OCS estimates the move will put $35 million back in the hands of licensed pot companies this fiscal year and $60 million in the 2024 fiscal year. The OCS expects these amounts to compound annually in the years thereafter as the legal cannabis market grows.

 

The margin reduction will come from a fixed mark-up for each product category that will be standard for all producers and applied as a percentage above each product's landed costs, which already take into account producers' margins and excise taxes.

 

The margin drop was largely triggered by the strength of the illicit pot market, which still made up 43 per cent of Ontario's cannabis market last March.

 

"This announcement will allow producers to better compete with the illicit market, particularly when it comes to dried flower," said Charlie Bowman, chief executive and president of licensed producer Hexo Corp. in an email.

 

"This is an important step in giving Canada's cannabis companies the upper hand over illegal producers."

 

The average price for cannabis was $11.78 per gram at the start of 2019, shortly after legalisation, but fell to $7.50 per gram in 2021, a November report from Deloitte Canada and cannabis research firms Hifyre and BDSA said.

 

The average price for vape cartridges has similarly fallen by 41 per cent from $32.02 per gram around legalisation to $19 per gram a year later.

 

In other news from Canada, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says she wants Canada to consider expanding access to psychedelic drugs as medical treatments.

 

On Tuesday, May and other MPs joined a delegation of patients and health-care practitioners who are trying to lobby the federal government to make psilocybin -- the psychedelic compound produced by magic mushrooms -- more readily available.

 

The group is calling on lawmakers to advance clinical trials to better understand how the substance could be used for medical treatment of some mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety.

 

Psilocybin is listed under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and its medical use is restricted to people taking part in clinical trials or those who get an exemption.

 

"We need to do more research," May said at a news conference.

"But to get that research done, we need to make access available to patients whose doctors are there to help them with registered therapists who know how to administer psilocybin."

 

May said the federal government should expand access to psilocybin before Canada's assisted-dying laws are expanded to include eligibility for people whose sole underlying condition is a mental disorder. A Liberal bill to delay the expansion until March 2024 is expected to receive unanimous support in the House of Commons.

 

Over the next year, May said, Canada should "accelerate our research efforts" to see whether psilocybin can be used as a treatment for people who are suffering because of mental illness.

 

In relation to that news, Lucy Scientific Discovery Inc. (NASDAQ:LSDI), an early-stage psychedelics manufacturing company that is focused on becoming the premier research, development, and manufacturing organization for the emerging psychotropics-based medicines industry, announced last week that it has filed an amendment to its current Dealer’s License with Health Canada to add cocaine and heroin, among others to the list of approved substances that it is authorized to manufacture.

 

The shift toward a public health response to the drug crisis will provide greater opportunities for people who use substances to connect with a growing range of harm reduction and treatment options. Currently, Lucy focuses on the development of psychedelic drugs for research purposes and hopes to supply safe access programs in the future. The Company has licenses to manufacture several controlled substances, including Psilocybin; MDMA; LSD; Psilocin; N,N-DMT; Mescaline; and 2C-B.

 

“We look forward to a time when Lucy can safely supply harm reduction programs globally, aiming to reduce lethal and or negative consequences associated with adulterated drug supply, particularly considering that fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of deaths among 18 to 45-year-olds in the United States,” said Chris McElvany, the Company’s CEO. “It’s time to realize that the failed war on drugs has caused additional harm to the masses worldwide, and harm reduction programs will lead to less death and more treatment options in the long term.”

 

Following its IPO, Lucy believes that it is well-positioned to continue positively impacting the field of psychedelic medicine.

 

Investor ideas reminds all listeners to read our disclaimers and disclosures on the Investorideas.com website and that this podcast is not an endorsement to buy products or services or securities. Investors are reminded all investment involves risk and possible loss of investment.

About Investorideas.com - Big Investing Ideas

We publish breaking stock news, stock research, guest posts and create original top rated investing podcasts, plus sector tag articles featuring up and coming companies and industry leaders.  Investor Idea’s original branded content includes the Crypto Corner Podcast , Play by Play Sports Podcast , Cannabis News and Stocks on the Move Podcast ,  Cleantech and Climate Change Podcast,  Exploring Mining Podcast , Betting on Gaming Stocks Podcast and the AI Eye Podcast.  We also create free investor stock directories for AI and tech, biotech, cannabis, cleantech, crypto, defense, gaming, health and wellness, mining, oil and gas, sports and water. 

 

The Investorideas.com podcasts are also available on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Spotify, Tunein, Stitcher, Spreaker.com, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts and most audio platforms available.

Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions.

More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp

 

Investor Ideas does not condone the use of cannabis except where permissible by law. Our site does not possess, distribute, or sell cannabis products.