INSIGHTS ON THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY FROM REGULATORY BARRISTER MATTHEW (MATT) LAWSON
Matthew (Matt) Lawson, a UK Regulatory Barrister has penned a series of discussion pieces under the rubric “Insights on the Cannabis Industry”.
In this Part 1 of barrister Matthew (Matt) Lawson’s Insight into the Industry: Trends in the Markets, we look at the transition away from flower in the medicinal and adult use market segments.
While the European and North American medicinal cannabis markets have been dominated by flower products, as we move forwards there is a common consensus that they will tend towards extract-based products.
Thus far in Europe a large proportion of flower sales to pharmacies were subsequently used by pharmacists to create their own oils, however, there is now a growing trend of extract-based products being sold directly into the market instead of flower, bringing with it some standardization and (hopefully) consistency. The transition towards extract-based products in medicinal cannabis is fueled by their greater diversity, greater perceived consistency and the contradiction of inviting an ill patient to smoke cannabis and tobacco.
The scope of extract-based products in the adult-use cannabis sector is more difficult to predict. One major factor will be the proportion of the market which cannabis edible and beverage products claim. The trend witnessed since the release of extract-based cannabis edible and beverage products in Canada in late 2019 is a positive example in this regard – flower products are only the third most popular format for adult-use consumption in Canada, behind edibles and oils.
Matthew (Matt) Lawson is a UK Barrister who has advised Governments and Corporations for over 25 years in respect of human impactors – Food & Ingestibles, Medicines, Medical Devices and inhalation mediums. He provides worldwide Cannabis advice to clients who stem from Governments, to some of the largest multinational CPG corporations, to pharmaceutical giants, through to niche pre-IPO Start-Ups in the CPG and medical fields.