What to Know About the Cannabis Industry | Players Tech Summit

hello everyone thanks for joining us for I think the first ever cannabis panel at the players technology summit happy to say show of hands in the audience how many people here have invested at the cannabis industry so a few too many how many have used cannabis we're in California and it's ok it's legal a few who are being honest all right so this is a new and burgeoning industry tremendous amount of change happening at a very rapid pace were in San Francisco which is really kind of the heart of the push for change it has been since the 1990s so it's an appropriate place to be doing this al I wanted to start with you because you have the athletic background that I think will resonate with a lot of people in the audience tell us a bit about how you personally first discovered cannabis and then what led you to found viola your company well you know obviously growing up in New Jersey you know cannabis is always always around me and you know the war on drugs is very real and it was scary you know I was always taught that it was a gateway drug so especially being a young athlete you know I decided to stay as far away from cannabis as I could when I got to the NBA was the first time that I realized that you know athletes can use cannabis and still be very productive because you know some of the teams that I was on some of the best players on my team use herself Medicaid all the time so that's when I first realized that the stigma wasn't true but fast-forward when I went to when I played for the Denver Nuggets there just went medicinal eagle a year before I got there in 2009 I signed in 2010 so I was always reading a newspaper and always kind of you know educating myself to kind of you know set myself up for a moment and the moment happened with my grandmother who was 79 years old had come to see me play and she was suffering from you know all the things you know you know black grandmothers you know suffered from from high blood pressure diabetes you know she had glaucoma so when she said got home I was telling her about two days before I was reading about the benefits of cannabis for glaucoma so she finally actually she said well what is cannabis and I thought it was marijuana weed and she referred she's like reefer she's like I'm not smoking over here like there's no way grief is gonna help my eyes the next day you know she was in pain again and we talked about it again and finally I was able to convince her to try it so when she tried it you know I took it downstairs I had a game that day so I went to my little pregame that woke up an hour later and you know I was like new check on her to make sure she's not climbing the walls it's like and I go downstairs and I knock on the door and I back was to the door and I walked in and I was like grandma are you feeling and she literally she turned around and she was crying tears and she's like I'm healed she's like I haven't been able to read the words of my bite wound over three years so I went in the room and you know I hugged and I started crying with them stuff like that and that's what really inspired me to start I made my first investment and 2014 is when we got our first actual license and we decided to name the company Biola which I don't want to come back to some of the middle medical benefits with all three of you in a bit but Kevin we did not introduce you by saying that you have a athletic background as well but Kevin began his professional career as a football player for the Birmingham stallions the USFL League so so you two have personal experience with with the athletic field but then you moved into finance and then cannabis so you know obviously as we've seen this is the sector with four huge potential for growth but like any early-stage industry it also comes with a lot of risk and it's sometimes hard to know when you look at all the companies out there that are pitching themselves what what really is a good investment so acreage just closed on a pending deal with canopy growth corporation the largest Canadian cannabis company today what criteria so you you're well established but what criteria would you say people should be considering before they do to invest in one of these companies I think when you invest in any company and and I have been a financier for most of my adult life before monetizing a money management firm and then ultimately being a private investor I was introduced to cannabis back in 2011 so very early on and as a small aside that the gentleman that got me involved with cannabis was Cuttino Mobley who had played a number of years in the NBA he called me in 2011 and and asked me for some advice about the investment that he had made I think he might have been a little over skis in the investment I wasn't a cannabis person at the time but I had seen the operating leverage in the business and ultimately learned about the medicinal value of the plant and I was enamored that this will be the solve for the future not only in healthcare but in wellness but as it relates to making it an investment I think the same principles hold true whether it's in cannabis or whether it's in cable whether it's in any other industry if you don't have working knowledge of the space or a business I think you can prosper by having good advocates and and good people around you that can advise you on that the one thing I would tell you that and the one bit of advice I would lend is don't mix friends with business unless that friend is expert or as expert as most in the space and I think that you know when it comes to folks that have developed friendships over the year and they wanted to fall to you know their their friends to get them involved with exciting things make sure that that friend is also an expert in whatever they are invest and I'll be quite candid with you there are a lot of ganja planners in this world right since it's now the fastest growing industry in the United States but it's riddled with canna clouds and you want to avoid those people because it is such a explosive business there's a lot of opportunists out there that are looking to just basically you know maybe maybe a little bit not as genuine about their the investment principles is maybe one it should be so so I think contra printers that's a great term Dian we've spoken before you you run a venture capital firm called sx2 you're also CEO of the Jamaican medical cannabis corporation and in both of those you sort of see the possibility of generating both investment returns but also doing societal good so talk about how cannabis you know I think a lot of us tend to associate it with recreational use which is obviously a big part of the opportunity but talk a bit about how it can cross the boundary between profit and social good sure so I am the co-founder of sx2 ventures based in London we founded sx2 to really focus on investing in the area of human care so that's anything in health services longevity were very comfortable in emerging markets which ultimately led us to investing in cannabis in Canada really really early I'm Canadian it was very comfortable thing for us we were invited to go to Jamaica and look at an investment originally said no for the point that Kevin made I was like ganja Jamaica not a chance we are going there having said that it kind of stuck with me when went down had a lot of discussions talk to the government did our homework became very comfortable with that investment sx2 requires that any investment we make anywhere in the world societal give back we reject the notion that because there's a societal benefit you have to in some way come compromise making profit our model actually proves that's not the case so for example I use James you see it's our largest investment right now I'm actually running it because we didn't just invest in it we founded it and in that case we also founded the JMTC foundation where we reinvest 10% of our net profits back into the communities around where we work we work and our employees live we for example are the exclusive grower for the first phase human trials at the FDA's first acute might load a myeloid leukemia drug which is cannabis based that's actually with a Jamaican company and so in support of that Jamaican company we are doing the growing for those trials at our own expense through our foundation we have invested in a protection of the indigenous strains of Jamaica to ensure that those strains are around generations generation because as we got we're in this high demand for recreation these crazy THC levels are going to start to over hybridize true medicinal strains we have to protect them and make sure they're around not just for the island but for the future so those are the kinds of things that we do I would also add we grow in a collective which is a collection of farmers on the island we work with them in terms of international quality standards training development fair wages we give benefits which isn't normal or as as normal as we'd like to see it and in that collective they actually own 51% of the collective company so they will benefit from growing the highest possible quality product I want to come back to the clinical trials side of things in a second but I'll I was watching a really interesting video on your website where you talked to former NBA commissioner David Stern who was really tough on drug use with athletes when he was there and you got him to say some pretty interesting things he said I'm now at the point where personally I think it probably should be removed from the banned substance list in the US and he also said I think we've got to change the collective bargaining agreement and let you do it's legal in your state so that athletes who live in states like California where cannabis is legal should be able to legally partake without being punished for that so that's a pretty dramatic shift in view from him but do you think this will actually happen in the NBA and other professional leagues do you see things starting to change yeah I think it's gonna happen sooner than later you know I think the NHL during this season it was going back and forth you know trying to decide if it was gonna actually legalize you know the players being able to use CBD I think CVD is kind of our gateway into into these into sports you know I think the perception obviously is the thing that everyone is concerned about you know I always use an example you know if cannabis goes legal or the NBA says you know players can consume and Steph Curry missed ten threes everybody's gonna say hi so obviously you know teams want to stay away from things like that but you know receive edy you know I feel like THC and CBD you know is this an alternative way for you know for guys to medicate themselves because we all know you know the dangers of opioids from you know it being addictive and just you know the side effects and different things like that but cannabis doesn't have any of that you know and my thing is that you know if the teams and these organizations want what's best for the players they should take a deeper dive into the cannabis plant because there's something there you know what I'm saying I mean I have stories of you know people that have had you know terminal cancer and started getting on THC CBD regiment and you know there's no cancer in their body you know so there's something there and I think that just the team's need to invest the money in the time it's a finding out you know what's really good for these players because we know that the opioids is definitely not it you know especially when it comes down to the quality of life after they're done with the game Kevin I know acreage and canopy are working I think with the NHL Players Association right on co-sponsoring a study in Canada so talk a bit about your view of the medical potential of cannabis you know specifically for athletes because I think the NFL too has expressed some willingness to be open to this but also more broadly speaking some of the work you're doing on the clinical trial side of things well as stated earlier my initial attraction to the space was as much about the economics as it was about the healing capability of cannabis you know you hear these stories every day that you know it's anecdotal stories about you know the child that goes from 70 seizures a day to one a month there's nothing anecdotal about that story to the parents of that child and believe me see that child transform his or her life is inspiration enough to want to go the next step ninety-five percent of this country still believes in medical cannabis yet it's still a Schedule one drug and so the hypocrisy that we live with in the United States it's our goal to change that but as it relates specifically to athletes athletes whether it's a baseball football basketball you name it skiing under tremendous physical stress and you know as I pointed out opiates are not the solve and to give you a sense for that I have a number of private investors that had invested with us free going public and one of those was one of the top surgeons in the world and said to me Mervin I had no idea five years ago when I was prescribing oxy codeine that it was going to have such a damning of fat on some of the people that I was basically prescribing those two I personally have a very dear friend who got injured playing football went the protocol of taking the opiates he hanged himself three months ago because he couldn't deal with the opiates and he ran out of money if cannabis was in his life I promise you he'd be living today and so we're passionate about the medical side of it yes it's a tremendous business there are tremendous returns to be had in this business but it's so far outweighed by the fact that we can change people's lives every day as our points out from cancer patients to concussions to PTSD there's 23 million veterans in this country that choose to give their life or choose to risk their life every day but they can't choose cannabis in their life and the reason they can't choose cannabis is because it's a federal program if the if the Armed Forces finds out that a veteran is using cannabis they lose their veteran rights as a matter of fact we have a veteran a storied veteran who spent three years of his life overseas he basically came to work for us West Point found out he was working for us not using cannabis working to help provide compassionate care for others they took his pension away here's a guy that basically was in harm's way in live fighting for three years of his life and now has no pension because cannabis is still a Schedule one drug to me you know it is absolutely so sad frankly and we're gonna look to change that with the people we've surrounded our company with our board of directors and the executives that we have on board so Diane I know J MCC is involved in several different clinical trials that are happening both in Canada and elsewhere talk a bit about some of the research that you're participating in and and you know your hopes for where that will lead sure so James you see in just two years is now in five countries I think that that speaks volumes to the recognition that there are therapeutic and medicinal benefits of this product and governments around the world are starting to see that we have almost I think 34 countries now that has have changed that so as we look at that and we really are trying to push the agenda agenda in those new markets it's it's not it's not gonna happen if there isn't solid sharing of medicinal scientific information and so it's a big part of JM CC's mandate to support scientific communities that are doing that we are in a PTSD trial with the Gold Coast University and licensed producer in Australia that's a grower or cultivator in Australia it has a big veteran part of it which we're very proud of because to Kevin's point there's a significant benefit for this product to veterans who have served their countries we are in the cute mildly leukaemia one which I mentioned we are in three mental health trials out of the University of Western Ontario in Canada they're specifically in the area of psychosis and anxiety there's a few more in there in the oncology area first prostrate cancer and breast cancer with the Winter University of Western excuse me Wilfred Laurier and then also we have big oncology trial for it's more pain management and sleep deprivation related to the impact of taking cancer treatments because it's not a this or cannabis it's a it's a collaborative approach to medicine so we we really believe that the the scientific data that so many governments have been saying no longer exists does exist and the sharing of that we are also hosting the a very large scientific symposium in London in September I'm an advisor to the CMC which is one of the groups helping shape of the UK's policy there and so in that we're bringing the scientists from around the world to the scientific community in the UK to try to accelerate the understanding of the benefits the kinds of things that Kevin and I were talking about that he experienced with his grandmother but also so that there's an opportunity to potentially take the learnings that are happening in other parts of the world and accelerate that into potentially expanding these trials into the United Kingdom it's interesting to note that all of almost all of this research is being done outside of the United States because it's still very very difficult to conduct clinical trials here in the US because cannabis remains a Schedule one drug all I want to come back to you we've talked a lot about how cannabis can help improve people's lives through medical use but what about improving people's lives through actually getting involved in the business side of things yeah well you know like Geminids mentioned you know opposite is a huge industry and you know just to kind of talk about what I represent for the space you know I represented the diversity you know because I've been in this space now since 2011 for the most part and you know I go to events and when I get there I'm the only person that looks like me and when we think about you know what the what drugs especially cannabis has done to the black community you know I think that there needs to be more representation you know we think about you know industries before cannabis right sugar cotton the lottery you know minorities specifically black people had their hands in it with their pioneering but now there was no representation there's no ownership so what I want to do and what I'm you know set out to do was try to you know their companies to create opportunities for other minorities to get into the space that have ownership because this is gonna be a trillion dollar industry and you know we can just get 10 20 percent of that you know it could be generational wealth for our communities you know we're always talking about reparations but I think this is a way that we can take reparations if we can get that opportunity to be able to be a part of this industry because you think about its you know 20% of its multi trillion dollar industry now - definitely rebuild our community you know so that's you know that's something that I represent and that's something that out you know I reach out to others about why they should actually get involved and stop being so afraid you know the perception of what other people think and kind of think about it you know this is something that's bigger than them and if we can get in and get together and pull together as a union I think that you know we can have a lot of change and we can do it through this plan a plan there like I said destroyed our communities and I think we can rebuild it we only have about three minutes left but I wanted to see if there are any questions in the audience because this is probably a new space for a lot of people do we need to make you would ask it all that Peter okay go ahead good [Music] so so the first first question is I'm looking for Nellie to definitely smoke I heard you got some Maui wowie that's fire check it out second I think that the way that first of all I'm going to give you guys a newsflash right the players are already using you know the same like realtalk and you see the product that's out there on the floor I think the game is as good as it's ever been you know what I'm saying and the one thing I think that people have to give the players is a little bit more credit that we respect our craft a lot you know what I'm saying it's like I'm not gonna go when I know I gotta play against Victor Oladipo I'm not about to go and smoke before that game if you don't say I need everything I got to guard him that night you know what I'm saying but you know when you talk about how do you you know gauge it right now that's that's tough because there's no way to know if a guy's high different things like that and then you know because cannabis you know when it's in our body it makes us all feel differently because I endocannabinoids system or whatever you know I don't really have an answer to that of like how can you say this guy's hard but I would just say that you know most guys you know respect their craft enough that they're not gonna go out there and not be able to give it their best did I just do your question thank you my question for all three of you is really in terms if it's one girl in regards to the pharmaceutical industry as a whole and my question to you guys is what's your guys's take on transparency meaning what are you guys telling your consumers like when the question is asked what am i smoking what are you guys as answers because that's that's obviously a trending obstacle that we see today in every industry right the food industry pharmaceutical industry and really you guys right the biggest question is what is this strain and how can we verify that I'll take a crack at it you know knowledge is power and we actually have grown a business to the extent that we now have a balance sheet where we can do a lot of testing we can do a lot of discovery around the plant and so it's maybe as much about the strain as it is about what effect it will have and so we do a lot of work on predictability dose ability experience and consistency of that experience and it's simply because we don't want people to have a bad experience or a bad outcome if they're looking to it from a medical standpoint and so I think as we do more study and as the federal government allows us to do that that will enable us to be more intelligent about it now we've reached outside of the United States to do that same work that we should have the opportunity to do here but we don't and so we spend the money outside of this country to basically import it into this country and be more knowledgeable about it so that that would be my answer to that question Dianne final word to you I I would say you know Jay MCC is Normand and patient we are cultivator we have one job grow the highest possible product that goes then to companies biotechs and he's that turn an impatient product like Kevin testing is critical we test throughout our grow we test two weeks before harvest the product must leave Jamaica and travel into any country with actual data that says it is this it is this strength it was tested on these dates so the product leaves like that I know I'll speak for Canada Health Canada requires a very very strict standard on top of that to the product that is then going to patients now patients also have a duty however to really go and understand where they're buying their product you know with the greatest respect to people in my country if you're buying it from the Indian reserve you're probably not getting a medicinal product you know they're doing the best they can but they're growing it outside that's not a medical product alright unfortunately we're out of time but I think everyone will be around for a little while if anyone else has additional questions thank you all [Applause]

Channel: Bloomberg Live

Views: 10,465

Keywords: bloomberg, bloomberg live

Id: 3ytri9FuEfM

Length: 26min 21sec (1581 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 28 2019