Cannabis-infused beers taste like urine.

At best, they have an “oily grass” flavour according to the Wall Street Journal. Having tasted the stuff in Italy last year, Stockhead can confirm you’re better off with a Fosters.

But if you are serving marijuana beer — or indeed any form of cannabis — at at dinner party, do you know the correct etiquette?

Always, says the great-grand daughter of etiquette queen Emily Post, have a finger bowl available “to troubleshoot a joint that’s running, or burning unevenly” and three puffs is quite enough before passing. Yes, this is a great post about how to cannabis with civility.

Still in the world of science, albeit technical, not social, local pot newsletter Cannabis Intel outlines a few of the clinical trials happening in Australia and around the world, noting Australia’s advantage of being both a trial hub and having legal cannabis to play with.

The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry lists 123 trials in both countries around cannabis, while the US registry lists 783 around the world.

Hemp is genetically different to cannabis, so don’t believe the marketing fluff around hemp seeds and oil that conflate health benefits of the two, says Medlab Clinical (ASX:MDC) boss Dr Sean Hall.

It’s cutting edge science, but the basic facts are there to suggest that hemp fundamentally can’t give you the same health benefits as cannabis because it’s not genetically designed to.

North American cannabis stocks have recovered from their late-2018 slump, with the New Cannabis Ventures Global Cannabis Stock Index rallying over 55 per cent this year.

The arbiter of all things CBD (in the US) has resigned.

FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb resigned this month. No Australian cannabis execs spoken to by Stockhead have mentioned any qualms about this, but it’s unsettling people at investment newsletter New Cannabis Ventures.

“We think the industry needs clarity at the federal level… in addition to the lack of clarity at the federal level, the status of hemp and CBD at the state level is in disarray,” they said in last week’s newsletter.

They reminded people that just because hemp-derived CBD is legal federally, it doesn’t mean it’s now legal in every state. That’s for the states themselves to legislate.

They also warned of a number of “dubious” players in CBD and listed companies jumping into the sector for the hype, rather than because they know anything about it.

Finally, how much would you pay for a medical cannabis script?

The UK’s first cannabis clinic is milking the fact that it’s the first while it can: they’re charging £200 for appointments and an enormous £600 and £700 a month for a prescription. And people say the Australian market is broken.

Keeping up with the companies

Cann Group (ASX:CAN) is notorious for saying little but this week broke its silence: the Melbourne airport site — which it’s been planning on for about a year — isn’t working.

It’s going to Mildura instead along with its five-year offtake agreement with shareholder Aurora Cannabis.

Cann CEO Peter Crock told Stockhead his company had “run into headwinds” with the airport site and moving north “gets us back on track”.

“We are still targeting getting plants into the facility by the end of this calendar year, start the ramp-up process, bring cultivation online ahead of the facility being fully commissioned by the third quarter of 2020.”

Cronos Australia’s $200m IPO has been put on hold as it has some questions to answer from the ASX around distribution agreements.

Vivid Technology (ASX:VIV) says it’s in talks with people who might want to buy its intelligent lighting control system for growing cannabis.

Last year Dr Trevor Garnett, a director at Adelaide university’s Plant Accelerator, told Stockhead that lights themselves have been optimised over the years for growing pot, as illegal growers have created a market for globes that give off marijuana’s preferred light wavelength.

Affinity Energy (ASX:AEB) is still suspended as it tries to cobble together some cash for its latest venture, a Maltese cannabis facility as the last two — algae biofuel and nutraceuticals — are to show many signs of viable life.

Bod (ASX:BDA) has started selling its marijuana-based nutraceuticals in Europe, and Zelda (ASX:ZLD) is going to America after signing a nifty deal with a Philadelphia pharma company.

Althea (ASX:AGH) has lost a very involved board member from major shareholder Aphria, as Gregg Battersby has stepped down. He will likely be replaced by Aphria’s president, Jakob Ripshtein.

Croplogic (ASX:CLI) has signed a lease over land in Oregon that, it says, can produce hemp crops worth between $US6.3m and $US15.2m a harvest. It hasn’t said what size its first crop, due in September, will come in at.

And eSense (ASX:ESE) is in trouble again. It has secured $5000 worth of sales to the UK, but is being hauled over the coals for not telling the market that a director’s performance rights expired in February — the same ones at the heart of this controversy.

Cann Global (ASX:CGB), formerly known as Queensland Bauxite, is yet to return to the market after being suspended on July 28.

Ticker Name Price March 20 ($) 2-week % change Market cap
AEB AFFINITY ENERGY AND HEALTH (suspended) 0.01 0 $8,774,329
AGH ALTHEA GROUP HOLDINGS LTD 0.36 -0.09 $72,175,048
AC8 AUSCANN GROUP HOLDINGS LTD 0.32 -0.18 $106,636,000
BDA BOD AUSTRALIA LTD 0.36 -0.17 $28,449,900
BOT BOTANIX PHARMACEUTICALS LTD 0.11 -0.12 $87,989,744
CAN CANN GROUP LTD 2.30 0.29 $233,306,096
CAE CANNINDAH RESOURCES LTD 0.02 -0.25 $2,717,789
CP1 CANNPAL ANIMAL THERAPEUTICS 0.14 0.17 $10,243,750
CPH CRESO PHARMA LTD 0.30 -0.2 $44,804,352
CLI CROPLOGIC LTD 0.02 0.77 $5,042,246
EXL ELIXINOL GLOBAL LTD 3.55 0.01 $427,207,040
ESE ESENSE-LAB LTD-CDI 0.02 -0.1 $3,713,538
EVE EVE INVESTMENTS LTD 0.01 0 $13,886,186
IDT IDT AUSTRALIA LTD 0.16 -0.03 $34,358,208
IHL IMPRESSION HEALTHCARE LTD 0.02 0.15 $12,529,487
LSH LIFESPOT HEALTH LTD 0.06 -0.12 $4,654,120
MDC MEDLAB CLINICAL LTD 0.40 0.04 $81,243,344
MXC MGC PHARMACEUTICALS LTD 0.04 -0.05 $43,661,896
MMJ MMJ GROUP HOLDINGS LTD 0.26 0.04 $52,934,268
RNO RHINOMED LTD 0.19 0.06 $26,967,324
ROO ROOTS SUSTAINABLE AGRICU-CDI 0.08 -0.11 $5,249,333
RGI ROTO-GRO INTERNATIONAL LTD 0.27 0.04 $27,868,456
SCU STEMCELL UNITED LTD 0.02 0.05 $10,306,904
SUD SUDA PHARMACEUTICALS LTD 0.01 0.25 $12,909,796
THC THC GLOBAL GROUP LTD 0.55 -0.01 $68,729,888
TPE TPI ENTERPRISES LTD 1.00 -0.01 $78,653,024
WOA WIDE OPEN AGRICULTURE LTD 0.18 0 $12,704,265
YPB YPB GROUP LTD 0.01 0 $7,335,468
ZLD ZELDA THERAPEUTICS LTD 0.05 -0.04 $40,788,464
Wordpress Table Plugin