A Toronto-based company has become Canada’s first publicly-traded recreational marijuana firm. Nutritional High International, Inc., which produces oils and extracts as well as a variety of edibles, began trading Monday on the Canadian Securities Exchange.
The firm raised $1.6 earlier this month before closing its initial public offering, and on Monday it ended the day trading at 8.5 cents a share.
Nutritional High is in an unusual position as a publicly-traded company in a country where the recreational use of marijuana remains illegal. Canada has a medical marijuana market, but the production of oils, extracts, and edibles are illegal even for medical marijuana companies. Canada’s public health department, Health Canada, restricts the use of marijuana for medical patients to the dried plant, due to the lack of research concerning other products. Canada’s Supreme Court is currently hearing a case challenging this restriction.
In light of restrictions at home, Nutritional High has created a business model that aims to take advantage of the increasing number of state recreational markets throughout the U.S. The firm will focus on producing infused edibles and oils, which it sees as having the biggest profit margins.
Currently, the firm is most active in Colorado, but may eventually expand into Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Minnesota.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/03/23/nutritional-high-recreational-marijuana_n_6926356.html
Photo Credit: Cannabis Culture