Big Tobacco Firm Files for Bankruptcy Protection
In 2018 Pyxus, then called Alliance One International, jumped into the marijuana market by purchasing Canada based Island Garden and 80% stake in Goldleaf Pharm. But the recent pandemic has resulted in major losses, forcing the Morrisville, North Carolina, based big tobacco company to seek bankruptcy protection. Pyxus’ supply chain relies on tobacco leaf from thirty different countries and over 300,000 international farmers. Reduced global tobacco consumption had already brought about dwindling profits.
The plan to reduce debt by $400 million and give control to a group of bondholders will not include Pyxus’ Canadian cannabis operations, which are based in Prince Edward Island and known as Figr. The company also grows hemp in the United States.
Swiss Adult-Use Experiment Moves Forward
In June the lower house of Switzerland’s Federal Assembly green lit a research program allowing for the temporary cultivation and sales of marijuana for adult-use. As promising as the news may sound, this only means the measure moves to the upper house.
Earlier in the year the Swiss National Council Health Commission approved the experiment, and now the Council of States will debate the bill before casting their votes. While most remain optimistic toward eventual passage, many warn that there is no guarantee it will pass, and that it could undergo modifications and/or delays. Even if approved, this temporary trial would need to be completed, and analysed, before legalization efforts moved forward. “This scientific process is expected to last five years, which could be extended two more, and the evidence collected from it is supposed to provide scientific arguments for a national debate on the opportunity to legally regulate cannabis for adult consumers,” stated Swiss drug policy expert Simon Anderfuhren-Biget. He speculates it will be some time before this pilot program is off the ground, “this legislative process is still ongoing and somewhat uncertain, and according to this political agenda, even in the best scenario, I would be surprised to see distribution before 2022.”
Aurora Sees President, Co-Founder Step Down
Steve Dobler co-founded Aurora in 2013 with Terry Booth, and has been president and board member since 2014. Effective June 30th Dobler is stepping down and retiring.
Executive chairman and interim CEO Michael Singer, former CFO for Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc, said in a press release, “Steve’s decision to retire and help streamline our leadership team further supports the objectives of our business transformation plan as we remain focused on driving Aurora to become a profitable and robust global cannabis company.” Aurora’s most recent quarterly earnings show a reduced net loss of $137 million Canadian, or $97 million U.S dollars.
United Nations Begins Cannabis Topical Meetings
With a tentative vote coming before December, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) Secretariat sent an email informing all permanent Vienna based missions that the “first topical meeting of the intersessional considerations of the WHO scheduling recommendations” would be held June 24-25. Set behind closed doors and only involving UN-member nations and “relevant governmental organizations”, it was the first of a series of topical meetings to be held before the vote.
The focus of the first meeting was the United Nations World Health Organizations recommendations to strike cannabis “extracts and tinctures” from schedule 1 of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics and Drugs, and to add a footnote clarifying that predominantly CBD (up to 0.2%) products would not be under international control.
Some of the sub-issues brought up in the email include implications for international trade, the impact rescheduling would have on control of these substances, a possible guideline “to ensure a common understanding”, the consequences of including both medical and nonmedical products, the “possible legitimization of recreational consumption of derivatives of hemp with low THC content”, the necessity of a common methodology for testing THC, and the definition of the word ‘predominantly’.
