Good morning. Welcome to The Greenfields. We are the Alan Kohler of the cannabis business except probably higher. Unless there's something you want to tell us Alan.

What’ve we got for you today?

• Can you help New York get rid of $1 Billion of weed?

• NSW Greens announce cannabis legalisation policy

• Dan Does Drug Driving

• Photos of People (or cats) Surrounded by Cannabis

• More half-year medicinal cannabis company results

Can you help New York get rid of $1 Billion of weed?

New York cannabis farmers have a glut of cannabis after the state produced about 300,000 pounds of cannabis. Valued at an estimated three quarters of a billion much of the crop has nowhere to go because regulators have approved more growers than they have dispensaries.

Simple supply and demand right?

New York has prioritised people who were disproportionately affected by the war on drugs for growing and dispensary licences. Unfortunately that has resulted in a bottleneck of actually getting the buds into punters hands.

And no, you can't volunteer to take it off their hands for them. Because cannabis is legalised on a state-by-state basis it's illegal to transport it across state borders, let alone post it to you in Australia.

It's believed that a lot of the excess buds will have to be turned into oil or other cannabis products like edibles. So it's not a total loss but it does highlight the difficulties of creating a new legal market out of nothing.

NSW Greens announce their cannabis legalisation plan

The NSW Greens announced their plan for cannabis legalisation.

The plan would:

• Legalise cannabis for adult recreational use

• Raise an estimated $9 Billion in revenue for the state

• Change drug driving laws to focus on impairment

• Allow people to grow up to 12 plants per household

• Allow people to grow in social cannabis growing clubs

• Expunge past cannabis convictions

Probably the most interesting thing about the plan are the provisions for home grow and expungement of cannabis convictions. The federal Greens cannabis announcement earlier in the year was criticised for not addressing the home grow and transitioning legacy cannabis people into the legal market.

Removing people's convictions opens up the possibility of further social equity initiatives that would help those unfairly targeted by cannabis prohibition (aka the "war on drugs" 🙄).

There's also strong support for home grow and "group" grow provisions in the policy. Allowing people to grow their own medicine or grow as part of a co-op greatly improves the ability for people to access treatment. It could also lead to the development of a home grow hobbyist industry similar to what we see with home brew alcohol.

Driving laws are probably one of the biggest, but most overlooked issue with creating a recreational use market. Unlike alcohol, cannabis can be detected in the system well after it has worn off. Under existing laws around the country this means that most people using cannabis regularly risk losing their licence.

In order for the recreational market to grow beyond the current size of the medicinal and illegal markets, it can't stop people from driving for days after having a joint on the weekend.

Dan Does Drug Driving

Speaking of drug driving Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has announced his support for reforming drug driving laws. This comes on the back of Legalise Cannabis Victoria introducing a bill to reform the drug driving laws a few weeks ago.

It's promising news and could also be the trigger for other states to follow.

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Photos of People (or cats) Surrounded by Cannabis

This weeks Photos of People (or Cats) Surrounded by Cannabis comes to us courtesy of CannabisHub. These ladies from Thailand are having a great time surrounded by cannabis. We have no idea who you are, but we're glad you are having a great time.

Good for you ladies.

If you'd like to see your photo in Photos of People (or cats) Surrounded by Cannabis share it with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.

Dr. Lenny's Lab

Got a question about cannabis you'd like answered by an actual scientist?

Dr. Lenny is a plant and brain scientist that can answer your questions about cannabis, plants, brains, research, medicine, and biology.

Reply to this email with your questions and the best one will get an answer in an upcoming newsletter.

More half-year results

More medicinal cannabis companies announced their half-year results and today there's some slightly better news than usual.

ECS Botanics

ECS Botanics (ASX:ECS) have halved their losses! Amazing. They've been hit hard by floods in December but managed to work around it.

The improvement is a result of increased sales and a reduction in their wage bill. Their sales increased from $2.3m to $7m thanks to increased interest from local and overseas buyers.

Althea

Althea (ASX:AGH) on the other hand increased their losses by 32% to $9.36 million. Despite this they still anticipate achieving cashflow break even and operating profitability during March 2023. Their revenue increased by 26% to $12 million.

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That’s your walk through The Greenfields of the cannabis industry today. We hope you've enjoyed it.

We’ll see you again on Tuesday, but if you want more follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is not financial advice. It is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell anything or to make any financial decisions. Please do your own research and do not buy anything dodgy.