Speaking on the ifa Show podcast, editor James Mitchell asked journalist Eliot Hastie about his discussions with Barry Lambert, chairman of hemp products provider Ecofibre, while writing this month’s cover story for the magazine.
Through his chats with Mr Lambert, Mr Hastie recalled him saying he got into marijuana investing because his granddaughter was very sick, and looked into a US study showing that cannabis helped her condition by helping to increase life expectancy as well as experience less pain.
“Of course, in Australia it was, at the time, illegal. And I believe his son actually started to import it and obviously got into huge trouble,” he said.
“It was very clear speaking to him that he was not about the recreational side of marijuana. It was very much just medicinal.
“He just said that there’s no industry as of yet in Australia, because if we’re trying to export it, we don’t need to export it to the US. They’re safe. They can grow outdoors. [But in] Australia, you’re confined indoors because of regulations.”
Mr Hastie noted Mr Lambert’s comments that despite Australia having perfect conditions for growing marijuana outdoors, current regulations mean it has to be grown indoors, which is much more expensive.
“[Ecofibre] is putting a huge amount of money into it. I think there’s a billion-dollar one going up next to one in Melbourne, so huge production value. Yet if they try to sell it to America, they can get it cheaply. Canada is trying to look at exporting,” he said.
“So it was really interesting hearing Barry say they’re going to really struggle to make money and, at the moment, none of them are.”
To listen to the full ifa Show podcast, click here. Further, if you also want to read the full March cover story, you can do so by clicking here.
The US and Canadian governments have worked out if you cannot stop distribution of marijuana, clip the ticket on it.
Barry may be currently struggling to make money on this venture, however based on his track record, he will work it out.
On the basis the medicinal product helps people, we should embrace it.
Very good title Adrian.
Based on some of the findings in the RC I think someone must have got a free sample
Given the move across Canada and the USA as well as many other western countries that have legalised cannabis / marijuana (largely medicinally but also recreationally), the writing is on the wall for regulation to be opened up. After all if one looks into the history of the plant, it has been used for thousands of years and was only made illegal due to greed and racism in the 1930s after a successful yellow journalism (i.e. ‘fake news’) and propaganda campaign.
Given this, wouldn’t now be a good time to be getting into this nascent industry?