European hemp cultivation has substantially increased over the last several years and is anticipated to continue to grow with their opened minded government. With conferences expanding, the government looking into economic benefits with hemp and medical cannabis, and Joe Biden kicking out 6700 convictions, the European government is seeking more information on Hemp and medical cannabis. With stigmas being broken down, and an opened minded government MSPs are poised to assist in this rapidly growing market. Harry Brelsford of The CannaTech Groups sits down with Eric Boone of Meristematix to chat about the Future of Hemp in Europe.
Video Transcription
Harry Brelsford
Welcome back to the Canada tech podcast. We are back with Eric boom. And he’s got a couple of new stories to tell number one him fast. Number two, he settled in Portugal. So which one you want to take first? Eric, first of all, how you doing? Man? Your few timezones over.
Eric Boone
Yeah, yeah, we’re, we’re about eight hours ahead of Pacific time. So it’s, it’s good. It’s, it makes for some interesting, interesting meeting times certainly is as kind of have feed in both pools at this point, but it’s, um, it’s good. It’s good. It’s really, really great over here. Just kind of a much more laid back sort of pace of life. Really safe, if any places safe in these crazy days. But yeah, it’s, it’s going really nicely. And and the important thing is, you know, we always talk about MSPs. from a, from a cannabis perspective, a cannabis and hemp perspective. And that’s why I’m representing Seattle hemp fest today are 30 year old, nonprofit protests, evil, we’re actually going to be having the first international hamfest At the end of this month, and the Azores in the sort of a Hawaii of Portugal, and there’s going to be a conference on the 29th and 30th, there can a source where we talk about the future of hemp in Europe, and that’s kind of what I wanted to talk about, you know, our short time together today is, where is your bet? And what is that? You know, what are some of the timelines look like? And then most importantly, for your listeners, you know, what is that? What does that look like from, you know, a technology standpoint, from a from an MSP standpoint. So really, the the game is on in Europe for quite some time now. They’ve been, they’ve been, you know, dancing around with CBD, and you’ve got a lot of Delta eight, that’s getting popular, sort of like the gas station weed for lack of a better word, but it’s a synthesized cannabinoid or hemp derived cannabinoid that is proven quite popular and circumvents a lot of the regulation around cannabis illegality. So they’re, they’re sort of propagating their model through that. Right now, a lot of the opportunities from the technology standpoint are fairly limited, because the markets are still very small and fragmented. However, you’re starting to see the emergence of retail and franchise chains. So we’re definitely looking at some, you know, POS, services to offer over here, that would be fantastic. desperately needed to there, there are some that are already on base that could easily be tailored for our industry. But yeah, it’s it’s been a pretty interesting to watch the progress because the big news on the block is that Germany has really come out and said, Look, we’re going to bring our recreational program online and their target date is third quarter of 23. And Germany is, yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s really, it’s really sneaking up, it’ll be here before we know it now. You know, an election they right now, there’s a really liberal government in play right now. So you know, an election zigging when it should have zagged could, of course, railroad these timelines, but if the current structure of the government stays where it’s at, and yeah, they’re moving very aggressively on this predominantly for economic reasons. And that’s really where where my you know, my big company meristematic comes in as well as we can help governments, right size those tax rates using AI and machine learning, based on their sales data, and since they’ve already started integrating a lot of the CBD sales, you can sort of get some not wonderful but but a general idea around sales data based on some of the CBD numbers which aren’t directly translatable, but it’s a start. So there’s, there’s a burgeoning like it’s it’s bursting at the seams. And once Germany, once that domino falls, we anticipate adult use markets popping online all over Europe and
your service providers that are looking to target, you know, larger vertically integrated, multi company operators. Keep a close eye on Europe, because it’s going great gangbusters that the conference circuit starting to pick up more and more over here. Yeah, it used to be far between but they’re getting fairly prolific at this point. Like I said, I’m giving this Canada, Canada a source at the end of the month, I’ll actually be giving the opening keynote and we’re going to have the Minister of Minister of Finance and Minister of Agriculture, they’re listening and the talk is around, you know, what’s the what’s the future of hemp and medical cannabis in Europe. And, you know, we think today sources is really poised to, to take a leadership role, they’ve got a very open minded government with regard to the economic benefits of that their technology and data driven. So it works very well with the model that we’re bringing to the table. And we’re excited to see what sort of doors we can open in a couple of weeks, especially on the heels of, of Joe Biden, you know, kicking out those 6700 convictions, those federal convictions the other day, it’s a it’s a small step in the right direction, it’s a ver of great step in the right direction, but it also sends a broader message to the world around, you know, breaking down stigmas and sort of opening the gate on this a little bit those, those MSPs that are poised to assist this, this rapidly growing market. You know, I think that Europe is an absolute must and in calculating your scale. So,
Harry Brelsford
yeah, couple of questions. I’m sure. One of our analysts you’re familiar with Dr. Paul seaborne, you know, was early early in the adult world of cannabis at the University of Denver, and, and then was recruited to the University of Virginia. And he went there, I think two years ago. And he said, It was like going back a decade. Having been in Colorado at the beginning, and now going to Virginia, which is working, you know, towards implementing legal cannabis a little bit slow. Do you feel the same? Do you feel going to Europe took you back 10 years?
Eric Boone
Well, that’s that’s a great question, Harry. Because that was one of the first things that I noticed is, when I spoke here, last time, I was trying to give a Westerners perspective. And I’ve been in cannabis markets since 2009. So I’ve seen the evolution in the United States quite a bit helped Arizona Medical worked a lot in Washington State, which is the more one of the more mature markets. And yeah, the difference is striking. We, what we see here is vaguely similar, sort of specifically similar to what we saw in some of the old medical days, a lot of jockeying and posturing. And, you know, not I wouldn’t say it’s the the level of professionalism that we’ve quite achieved in the illegal cannabis markets yet. But it’s still early days. And I think that you’re going to see, massive leapfrogging that’s one of the things that one of the one of the topics of my last conversation here was, you know, here, here’s some ways to learn from our mistakes. You know, it was it was a great kind of post mortem, in Forbes last month, where Berner was on the cover, where they talked about, you know, over regulation and over taxation was just strangling the industry. You know, we’re starting to learn that in the United States. Now, I’m sort of proselytizing that message. And you see that, you know, people taking note of that over here, they’re gonna learn from our mistakes. So you’re gonna see a lot of leapfrogging in terms of, you know, I think that they’ll make their mistakes much more quickly. Because they’ve already they’ve already seen us make those mistakes. And that was one of the main takeaway messages is, you know, here’s what we’ve done wrong, and forms of vulgar regulation, in forms of over taxation, in forms in terms of social equity, you know, and saying, you know, Europe has an opportunity to do better. And, you know, especially with very data driven markets like Germany, they’re, they’re going to learn from those mistakes, I think much more quickly. Yeah, a lot of the states did. And you’re, it’s gonna be less piecemeal. You know, what’s Germany because if Germany is one of the first then it’s just going to explode all over Europe, the states have taken a much more gradual approach. But at this point, there are only three states in union that completely forbid any sort of cannabis product.
Harry Brelsford
That’s true. Yeah. No, well, you’re a trailblazer. Hey, final question. If you know it, I’m gonna go to my calendar. When do you know when hemp Fest will be in Seattle? I want to get back up there in August and I’m hoping it’s next August.
Eric Boone
Yeah, it’s the third weekend of August. We have every every intent of being back in the park this year. COVID restrictions are off. One of the reasons that I’m over here is we’re licensing in Europe more and more to help pay for the party in Seattle. That’s, that’s a 501 C three A you know, we’re taking a massive pat on the back right now because this added like freeing to prisoners has been one of our main pillars of our organization for the last three decades. Yeah, it has. So it’s, it’s, it’s kind of a proud, proud moment for him fest to see this. Like I said small step, but very critical step in sort of erasing some of some of the missing of the mark in the war on the war on drugs. So
Harry Brelsford
yeah. All right. Well, hey, we’re gonna talk to you next quarter. Enjoy your speaking opportunity, and appreciate your time.
Eric Boone
Thanks as always, and I look forward to updating you more on Europe the same time, same place next quarter. Thanks again, Harry. Alright. Have a great day. Yep,
