{"id":5811,"date":"2018-12-21T12:30:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T16:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/?p=5811"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:52:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:52:29","slug":"legalization-of-marijuana-in-canada-technology-companies-rushing-to-cash-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/legalization-of-marijuana-in-canada-technology-companies-rushing-to-cash-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Legalization of Marijuana in Canada: Technology Companies Rushing to Cash in."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earlier this year the Canadian Senate voted to pass Bill\nC-45<\/a>, known as the Cannabis Act, and will effectively make\nrecreational marijuana legal for adults. Marijuana will not be sold in the same\nlocations as alcohol or tobacco and will\nbe available from drug retailers regulated by provinces and territories or from\nfederally licensed producers<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n

The newly created cannabis industry in Canada is certain to attract technological companies of all kinds, ranging from software companies to genetic engineering firms. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

Technology companies are racing to cash in on various new business opportunities that surround the cannabis industry. In fact, Bloomberg has predicted that Canada may see as much as $3.5 billion in sales from marijuana flower sales alone in 2019.<\/a> Not surprisingly, this magnitude of market potential has effectively driven many individuals and companies ranging from technological giants such as Shopify, to local startups,<\/a> seeking to earn a profit in the Cannabis industry. <\/p>\n\n\n

Aside from local dispensaries and\nother in-person stores, the\nmain way for Canadians to purchase recreational marijuana will be through\nonline shopping<\/a> run by either provincially or privately-run online\nstores. This electronic medium has opened doors for technological companies to\neither start their own privately run online stores or, as\nin the case of Shopify and other companies, help manage government-run\noperations.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n

Further, companies such as Shopify\ninvolved in cannabis retail are also working to implement seed-to-sale\nplatforms with other tech companies such as Trellis\nSolutions Inc.<\/a> and Ample Organics Inc.<\/a> to\nconnect virtually all aspects of the cannabis industry. These platforms will\nprovide information for areas such as growing and production; client\nmanagement; sales, packaging, and fulfillment; and quality assurance and\nreporting.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n

Retail and distribution, however,\nare not the only areas that are being pursued by cannabis entrepreneurs.\nCompanies such as Grow\nRatio<\/a> are using technology to inform producers how to optimize and\nincrease their growth rates. Software and applications such as Grow Ratio\u2019s\nallow a producer to control different variables for production such as powering on\/off\nlighting and other external systems such as HVAC  and nutrient delivery to the plants.<\/a>\n This control coupled with the ability to\nmonitor\nenvironmental data such as temperature, humidity, CO2 or other parameters<\/a>\neffectively allows producers of Cannabis to maximize profits and minimize\nproduction costs. <\/p>\n\n\n

On the other hand, companies such\nas Strainprint<\/a>\nare targeting social and more personal aspects of the marijuana industry by\nproviding services such as education of different strains and\nmethods of consumption and even marijuana dating apps<\/a>. Applications\nsuch as Strainprint\u2019s aim to help consumers select strains and methods\nof consumption<\/a> to experience effects tailored specifically to their\nmedicinal needs.  Users can input\nvariables such as the type and severity of pain they are experiencing and will\neven be able to share their results with doctors to further develop a personal\nmedicinal cannabis plan\/strategy.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n

  \nFinally, and most importantly, many biotech and drug companies such as Hyasynth Biologicals<\/a>\nhave begun to invest in genetic\nengineering of cannabis plants in hopes of creating new recreational products\nand medicines to treat chronic pain and many other health problems<\/a>.\nAccording to Hans Parmar, a spokesperson for Innovation, Science and Economic\nDevelopment Canada, the federal department working on the cannabis file, has\nstated that cannabis\nplants themselves cannot be patented.<\/a> However, Parmar insists that \u201cgenetically\nmodified cannabis plant cells\u201d and \u201cnovel isolated genes that produce cannabis\nactive ingredients\u201d will be eligible for patent protection<\/a>. If held\nto be true these biotech companies may receive enormous profits from royalties\nearned through these patents, especially if the market potential estimated by\nBloomberg ($3.5 billion) turns out to be accurate.\nThe newly created cannabis industry in Canada is\ncertain to attract technological companies of all kinds, ranging from software\ncompanies to genetic engineering firms. It is important to note that technology\nin the cannabis industry is still relatively in its beginning stages as Canada\nis only the second country to legalize marijuana for recreational use. This\ndecision by the Canadian legislature therefore has created an almost entirely\nnew industry and is one that will continue to expand as different technologies\nare developed and further explored.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year the Canadian Senate voted to pass Bill C-45, known as the Cannabis Act, and will effectively make recreational marijuana legal for adults. Marijuana will not be sold in the same locations as alcohol or tobacco and will be available from drug retailers regulated by provinces and territories or from federally licensed producers. …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6895,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5811\/revisions\/6895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}