Legalised pot set to spark new joint ventures in Canada

The Canadian federal government’s legalisation of marijuana for recreational use is still months away, but already a nascent cannabis industry is experiencing some of the exuberance the dot-com sector must have felt in the mid-1990s.

This week’s International Cannabis Business Conference will be the third marijuana conference held in Vancouver in the span of one month, which speaks to the interest investors and entrepreneurs are taking in marijuana, including Dundee Capital Markets, which earlier this year invested C$9 million (US$6.8 million) in a Moncton medical marijuana company called Organigram.

The medical marijuana industry has spawned a number of marginal players – from illicit dispensaries to failed junior miners jumping into the cannabis space – many of which are expected to be weeded out once the industry becomes fully regulated and taxed.

But it has also spawned some serious players, like Canopy Growth Corp, a medical marijuana company that, in 2014, went from a penny stock to a C$500 million (US$377 million) company almost overnight. In July, the company graduated from the TSX Venture exchange to the big board. Its shares were trading last week at C$5.49.

Even serious science institutes are getting in on the game. Last week, Genome BC announced a C$500,000 investment in Anandia Labs.

Founded by University of British Columbia (UBC) adjunct professor Jonathan Page, who co-led the first genome sequencing of cannabis sativa, Anandia Labs specialises in testing medical marijuana and using genomics for plant breeding.