Hemp Cultivation Opens Investment Opportunities For Cannabis Investors Around The Globe

      

Brazil is making moves into the lucrative Hemp market while American companies like West Coast Ventures Corp. (OTC: WCVC)are leveraging their first mover advantage to dominate the CBD industry.

 

Brazil is setting themselves up to become an agricultural powerhouse. The country has the competitive advantages to succeed in the hemp sector, which will exceed US$ 13 billion in the coming years. Brazil’s entry into the hemp market depends on the regulation of cannabidiol – the CBD – and, therefore, of medicinal cannabis. In the meantime American companies like West Coast Ventures Corp (OTC: WCVC)are making the most of their first mover advantage.

WCVC represents America’s first CBD restaurant stock and has married Fast Casual Dining with the lucrative CBD sector. The company sells Illegal Brands CBD sachets and water at all of their locations and offers a fulltime CBD menu. The company’s flagships Illegal Burger restaurants have experienced a successful year and their brand new Illegal Pizza location in Florida is predicted to generate $750,000 in revenue this year alone.

 

Why CBD changes everything

 

The scientific name for one of the varieties of hemp is cannabis ruderalis, called hemp. It has less than 0.3% THC content, the psychoactive component of the plant that causes so many regulatory problems. Hemp, on the other hand, has dozens of industrial applications and consumer uses without producing any illegal products.

Cannabidiol has proven clinical properties for the treatment of refractory childhood epilepsy. It presents no known health risks and is considered a safe substance for human consumption by several regulatory agencies around the world. But the use of free CBD is the greatest challenge and opportunity for hemp in Brazil. The regulation of cannabidiol is the Gordian knot that needs to be cut for industrial hemp to thrive.

CBD does not cause intoxication, but it is classified as C1 – special control substance – by Anvisa, which prevents the legal cultivation of hemp in Brazil. Anvisa’s Collegiate Board of Directors holds the power to remove cannabidiol from the list of controlled substances in Brazil and would thus open the way for the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Agriculture to legalize and regulate the planting of industrial hemp in the country.

The discussion about industrial hemp is once again on the agenda in Brazil, because of medicinal cannabis cultivation. On June 21, 2009, ANVISA opened two Public Consultations on the subject: CP 654/2019, which proposes to simplify the registration of cannabinoid-based drugs; and CP 655/2019, which proposes to regulate the planting of medicinal cannabis in Brazil.

On July 9, the National Congress held special sessions to discuss the topic, focusing on the debate on Anvisa’s Public Consultations. Patients’ organizations that make medicinal use of the plant, Anvisa’s president, William Dib, lawyers, doctors, experts and scholars of the plant, activists for and against the release of cannabis, as well as, of course, deputies and senators of all hues, were heard.

What was heard in many speeches were messianic preaching about medicinal cannabis. The debates served more to mark political positions, both of those in favor and those against the “liberation of marijuana”. The lack of dialogue between the groups in disarray was evident. And in the midst of all this, of this unsuccessful turmoil, one loses sight of the simple regulatory unleashing of the free CBD node and the capacity of Brazil to exploit the potential of hemp agribusiness is diminished.

The discussion on industrial hemp needs to mature rapidly in Brazil, at the risk of the country being overtaken by dozens of competitors, most notably the US. The end of the CBD ban and the regulation of industrial hemp planting have already occurred in Canada, the USA, Europe, Israel and Brazil’s neighbors such as Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

The wealth potential of industrial hemp, both for the country’s public health and for the Brazilian economy, cannot be buried by the dizzying degree of tension that exists in the discussion of medicinal cannabis. China is the world’s largest producer of industrial hemp and will be one of the major beneficiaries of the explosion in demand for products derived from it, especially CBD.

 

If Brazil is unable to adequately regulate the production of CBD they risk being left behind and missing out on an opportunity to revitalize the Brazilian economy.