大麻生产进入2.0时代

    打入加拿大市场是查班在美国之外的一个可行选择，尤其是在加拿大的不列颠哥伦比亚省，病患管理已经越来越宽松。不过，尽管Creative Edge Nutrition这样的公司不能在美国合法种植或出售医用大麻，却并不意味着他们没有做好准备，等待法律出现变更。CEN Biotech也在密歇根设立了子公司，而查班正在为美国的生产工厂物色地址。他说：“一旦我们发现联邦法律有所变更，就会着手建立工厂，所以一切都（已经准备就绪）。”

    迄今为止，医用大麻的使用已经获得了20个州和哥伦比亚特区的许可。不过尽管在科罗拉多州和华盛顿州已经有了蓬勃发展的大麻零售产业，还是有将近一半允许种植大麻的州还没有大麻零售市场——至少现在还没有。

    各大公司的行动都十分谨慎。严格按照法律来说，即便在允许使用医用大麻的州，联邦政府也可以突袭生产点，收缴大麻。科恩有过切身的体会。成立TRiQ之前，他在加利福尼亚州的门多西诺郡开设了一家公司Northstone Organics Collective，公司在遵守这个州法律的前提下种植大麻，提供给这个集体的1,700名员工。直到2011年9月，联邦探员突然手持镣铐和步枪出现在他们面前，摧毁和没收了全部99株大麻。

    科恩的新企业并不依托于大麻种植，而是利用技术，帮助种植者处理碰到的难题——从解决错误烘干手段导致的技术瓶颈，到防止货架上的大麻被霉菌污染，确保大麻常年保持新鲜。

    业内的其他公司也在寻找合适的工厂地址，从而让行业变得合法化和系统化。位于加利福尼亚州卡森市，制作和销售园艺产品、同时重点经营大麻的公司Growlife Inc.的执行副总裁兼主管罗伯•亨特最近提出了一项名为“天赋计划”（Gift Program）的倡议。他们将以此资助大规模的种植和技术研发活动。这家公司购买了CEN Biotech 公司25%的股权，同时也在研究销售技术：将店铺开进药房，从而实现数字化管理，保证与病患交易的安全性。

    不过，鉴于大麻在合法市场仍属于相对新鲜的事物，还有它在联邦黑市上的地位，就不同品种的大麻对人体的生理影响，几乎没有开展过大规模的研究。亨特说：“想想距今一百年前我们对医学的了解吧。我们对大麻仍然存在许多困惑。许多药房的老板真诚希望能更多地看到与基因作图相关的分析资料。”

    眼下，这个行业仍在不断发展进步。亨特说：“我们不妨看看在接下来的两三年里，技术上会发生什么变化。随着法律的修改，市场限制的宽松，会看到越来越多的聪明人进入这个圈子。”（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    For Chaaban breaking into the Canadian market was a viable alternative to the U.S., particularly as patient accessibility grows more lax in British Columbia. But while companies like Creative Edge Nutrition can't legally grow or sell medical marijuana in the U.S., that doesn't mean they aren't preparing for the law to change. CEN Biotech also has a subsidiary in Michigan, and Chaaban is scouting locations for a U.S. manufacturing facility. "We've set it up to have the infrastructure in place for when we do see a change in federal law, so that everything is [ready]," he says.

    To date, medical marijuana use is allowed in 20 states and the District of Columbia. But while Colorado and Washington already having burgeoning retail industries, in nearly half the states where cannabis can legally be prescribed, there is no retail market -- not yet at least.

    Businesses are acting cautiously. Technically, the federal government can raid and confiscate marijuana even in states where the drug has been legalized for medicinal purposes. Cohen knows this firsthand. Before founding TRiQ, he ran Northstone Organics Collective in Medocino County, Cal., which in compliance with state laws, grew marijuana that supplied the collective's 1,700 members until October 2011, when federal agents unexpectedly showed up with chainsaws and rifles, destroying and confiscating all 99 plants.

    Cohen's newest undertaking lies not in growing, but in helping to address some of the challenges growers face -- from bottlenecks caused by inadequate drying methods to keeping marijuana fresh on the shelf year-round to preventing mold contamination -- using technology.

    Others in the industry have been working at putting an infrastructure in place to legitimize and systematize the industry. Rob Hunt, executive vice president and director of Growlife Inc., (PHOT) a publicly traded company in Carson, Cal. that makes and markets horticulture with a focus in cannabis, recently announced an initiative called the Gift Program, in which they will fund large-scale growth operations and technology. The company has bought a 25% stake in CEN Biotech and is also working on a distribution technology that would place kiosks into dispensaries in order to digitize and secure patient transactions.

    But given marijuana's still relative newness to the legal marketplace and its federal black-market status, there's virtually no large-scale research being done on the actual physiological effects various strains of cannabis have on the body. "Picture going back a hundred years before we knew what we know about medicine now," Hunt says. "There's a lot of that still with cannabis. Most dispensary owners are really wishing they had better access to the analytical information associated with genetic mapping."

    Still, progress is being made. "Watch what happens with technology in the next two to three years," Hunt says. "As legislation changes and as the marketplace becomes less restrictive, you will see smarter and smarter people enter the space."