THC Global starts sales as one of few pot stocks making Aussie-grown marijuana

Queensland medical marijuana group THC Global (ASX:THC) has started selling its products in Australia, with the first one available by prescription under the government’s Special Access Scheme (SAS).

Stockhead is seeking comment on how much of the “oral liquid” product is now available and how much it will cost.

THC is one of several companies which anticipated having a home-grown product available in Australia by early 2020.

Most companies selling into Australia are importing products; THC is one of many supplementing its stock with foreign-made cannabis.

Cann Group (ASX:CAN), arguably the furthest ahead in terms of numbers of crops grown to date, delivered its first product to the general market in April. It had delivered a contracted volume of resin to the Victoria government last year.

Althea (ASX:AGH) has moved away from plans to supply Australia with home-made products, despite chief Josh Fegan telling Stockhead in February last year that ambitious plans to build a growing and manufacturing facility in Melbourne could be done in time for an early 2020 product launch.

The company planned to spend about $11m of the $19.65m it raised in a 2018 IPO on the facility, but an objection to the proposal held up the planning process last year.

In January this year Althea said it was “undertaking a review” of that plan in an acknowledgement that growing marijuana was rapidly becoming a ‘race to the bottom’ commodity market.

Elixinol (ASX:EXL) sold off the Australian property it intended for growing medical marijuana after a massive revamp of the strategy and board which saw founder Paul Benhaim sidelined. Benhaim has since launched a counter-coup and returned to lead the business.

Little Green Pharma (ASX:LGP) has been producing product available for the Australian market for two years.

Submissions to a Senate committee review into medical marijuana availability this year repeatedly said one of the key problems with legal cannabis products in Australia was they were prohibitively expensive.

The industry claims they can bring prices down by making products in Australia.

However, many companies such as AusCann (ASX:AC8) have moved away from the growing side of the business as cheaper competitors crop up around the world, and are moving to source raw material from a narrowing group of growers.