The rise in the number of optimistic regulatory frameworks instigated by various regional governments will positively anchor the forecast for the cannabidiol (CBD) market. The growing awareness regarding the benefits and effects of the product as an alternative treatment method has accelerated its preference among consumers and suppliers. Moreover, the continued advancements in the approval processes by various authorities worldwide have also made way for numerous opportunities supporting CBD market growth.
According to a report by Global Market Insights, Inc, the global CBD market size could exceed $108.8 billion by 2027.
Growing presence in cosmetics
The overall industry share from creams and roll-on products is poised to hit a 35.8% CAGR up to 2027. This is owing to the increasing scope of CBD in cosmetic applications as it is highly effective in treating skin conditions. This, as well as its anti-inflammatory characteristics from a medicinal perspective, are leading to increased demand for CBD products like creams and roll-ons.
Scope in the treatment of mental health
Some of the many infused products on the market today.
CBD market value from anxiety/stress applications exceeded USD 1.5 billion in 2020 due to the growing need for helping mental health. The World Health Organization reported that over 4.5% of the total population in Europe suffers from depression. This escalating anxiety and stress rate has encouraged healthcare practitioners to increasingly make use of CBD-based medications.
Higher demand for oral administration
Demand for oral cannabidiol administration held nearly 45% of the industry proportion in 2020 due to its growing preference considering the gradual relief of pain compared to other disorders. The increasing dependency on the oral administration route for product development by several manufacturers will add positive impetus to market growth.
Medical benefits of cannabis
Annual revenue of the CBD market from the segment of the market dealing with THC (and CBD) products is expected to cross USD 30.1 billion by 2027. This is largely due to its increasing penetration across various countries and regions on account of its legal status. Furthermore, the relatively higher THC content of the compound has led to its growing usage to combat medical conditions, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, among others.
Online distribution to see a considerable footprint
Ads for CBD products online regularly perform very well
The online CBD industry was responsible for more than 46% of the market in 2020. This is mainly due to the numerous advantages of online channels, like on-time delivery and adequate inventory, compared to their offline counterparts. Besides, this distribution platform minimizes the operational costs related to the maintenance of brick and mortar retail.
Australia to lead the regional landscape
Australia dominated the Asia Pacific CBD market by holding over 25% of the market share owing to the expanding geriatric population and the liberal stance of the regulating bodies in the region. The permittance to the medicinal and cosmetic use of CBD products is likely to spur regional adoption. The rising amendments in regulatory scenarios have also triggered awareness regarding the potential benefits of the product in the country. For instance, in April 2020, the Australian government released a new proposal for over-the-counter CBD in a bid to relax its narcotic scheduling whilst making it a Schedule 3 substance.
Providers of various CBD products are actively indulging in numerous growth strategies, like acquisitions and partnerships, to reinforce their market presence. For example, Mota Ventures Corp., in January 2020, acquired Spanish producer and online retailer, Sativida OU in a USD 2.2 million deal. The acquisition expanded the company’s presence in Europe and Latin America.
Although the demand for CBD is likely to experience certain hesitation from consumers in the short term, the market will witness lucrative growth in the long run. However, counterfeit and substandard quality products may potentially restrain industry expansion to some extent.
In India’s ancient Vedas texts, religious scholars described cannabis as “one of the five most sacred plants.” Cannabis has been a part of India’s religious rituals and festivities for millennia. Ancient Indian Ayurvedic practices used cannabis as an active ingredient in medicines, ranging from digestion problems to blood pressure. Nearly 191 formulations and more than 15 dosage forms have included cannabis as a key ingredient in the Ayurvedic texts. The plant grows wild throughout India’s Himalayan foothills and the adjoining plains, from Kashmir in the west to Assam in the east. This accessibility and abundance of cannabis presents India with the unique opportunity to harness the plant for economic growth.
Despite the country’s long history of cannabis use, the plant remains illegal except for in government-authorised premises that produce and sell bhang (which can be either ground cannabis balls or a drink made by mixing cannabis in milk), or for research and medicinal purposes.
Regulation of Cannabis in India Today
Cannabis is misunderstood legally and industrially in India. Under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, trade and consumption of both cannabis resin (charas) and the bud (ganja), are illegal and anyone found with them could face up to 20 years imprisonment. There is also a strict ban on cannabis (including hemp) production in India. Although some powers are given to the state government to grant licenses to cultivate cannabis under certain circumstances (such as for research and medicinal use), relatively few research organisations have obtained them. In fact, only the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand regions, which are both in northern India, have received hemp cultivation licenses.
Kashmir region of India, the Northern-most part of the country Image: Tanvir Kohli, Flickr
The Indian cannabis market has gathered significant attention recently, with various activists/NGOs filing court petitions demanding legalization of cannabis. They argue that the medicinal benefits of cannabis are hard to ignore, and the ideal climatic conditions for cannabis cultivation have the potential to boost the Indian economy and create millions of jobs. One of these NGOs is the Great legalization Movement, which is working to legalize the use of cannabis for medical and industrial purposes in India. In the summer of 2019, the Delhi High Court admitted a writ petition filed by GLM seeking decriminalisation of cannabis under the NDPS. The public interest litigation argues that the grouping of cannabis with other chemical drugs under the NDPS Act is “arbitrary, unscientific and unreasonable.” Although originally planned to be heard in February 2020, the hearing has been pushed back to May 1, 2020.
There is also traction among some government officials for the legalization of cannabis. Officials including Maneka Gandhi and Tathagata Satpathy have spoken in favour of cannabis decriminalisation. In November 2019, Madhya Pradesh, the second largest state in India, decided to legalize the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes. As one of the poorest states in the country, it is hoped that the legalization will attract new businesses to the fore. Even more recently, it was announced in February 2020 that the BJP government in Manipur is also considering the legalization of cannabis for medical and industrial purposes.
The Market for Cannabis in India
According to a report by Grand View Research Inc., the global legal marijuana market is predicted to reach USD $146.4 billion by the end of 2025. For India, with a population of approximately 1.4 billion and a growing middle class, the potential market for cannabis products is substantial.
A number of promising Indian cannabis start-ups have arisen in recent years, some of whom are collaborating in order to grow in the domestic market. These start-ups are generally focusing on medicines, cosmetics, textiles, accessories and foods. One of the most promising is Boheco (the Bombay Hemp Company), which is backed by high-profile investors including Google India’s Managing Director Rajan Anandan, and Ratan Tata of Tata Sons. The company is agro-based and intends to reimagine the future of Indian agriculture and sustainable living with hemp. It is also a major supplier of raw material to fellow start-ups, Hempster and B.E. Hemp.
In February 2020, the India-based healthcare start-up HempStreet (who concentrate on the use of cannabis in Ayurvedic medicine) raised USD $1 million in pre-series A funding. The company will use the funding to support its technology growth, research development and to launch a new set of cannabis-based products. Abhishek Mohan, HempStreet’s co-founder said they intend to set new milestones for the medicinal cannabis sector in the country. They are also building blockchain technology to track the cannabis from seed to sale, eliminating the risk that the cannabis they grow will add to the substance abuse problem.
According to HempStreet’s founder Mohan, globally about one in five, or 1.5 billion people suffer from chronic pain. India is predicted to be ranked highest in terms of chronic pain cases by 2025, presenting a huge market for those companies who intend to create treatments for chronic pain with cannabis.
Medical Research
In government authorised research premises, India has begun its medical research of cannabis. In order for cannabis to be used for medicinal purposes, it must have both CBD and THC components in the required proportion. Research is needed on Indian cannabis to study the chemistry and breeding of the plant to ensure it is appropriate for use in medicine.
The Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) have taken legal license to cultivate cannabis for scientific and medical research purposes to develop products for epilepsy and cancer treatment. Under a tripartite agreement, the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), the India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Department of Biotechnology have agreed to develop the epilepsy and cancer treatment products. The CSIR will cultivate the cannabis product and then carry out clinical work. The ICMR will then administer the clinical trials at the Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai and AIIMS in Delhi. In February 2020, the IIIM and CSIR entered into a cross-border agreement with the Canada-based cannabis research company IndusCann. This research & development collaboration aims to create ample opportunities for developing varied medicines from cannabis. Union minister Jitendra Singh described the agreement as a “historic” achievement, and that Jammu and Kashmir will be the first in the country to develop medicines from the cannabis plant. Singh noted that, incidentally, this is happening at a time when the government is making efforts to encourage foreign investment.
The doors of Bangalore’s Vedi Wellness Center opened for the first time on February 1, 2020, establishing itself as India’s first medical cannabis clinic. After five years of extensive research, HempCann Solutions will sell tablets and oils made from cannabis at the center. Since opening, the center has received over 100 calls and 25 drop-ins. The company regards Bangalore as a place that is open to new ideas and treatment methods. It was also where The Great legalization Movement began. The establishment of this center mirrors a trend in Europe, Canada and Australia in the opening of medicinal cannabis clinics. One year after the UK’s first cannabis clinic opened, it was announced in January 2020 that the UK’s Medical Cannabis Network plans to open more sites in the coming months.
Looking Forward
Despite being a trusted ingredient in the treatment of various ailments for thousands of years, the use of cannabis in modern medicine is restricted by India’s outdated cannabis laws. Although legalization is still some way off, the rising number of cannabis and hemp start-up companies, and the growing popular support for the plant’s legalization , is encouraging. Considering the medical and economic reasons in favor of legalizing cannabis, it may not be long before the Indian Government unlock the full potential that legalization would bring. For now, it will be interesting to track the success of India’s first medical cannabis clinic, and whether it will pave the way for others clinics to open across the country.
Nepal’s parliament is debating cannabis reform. Even more interestingly, they are also considering cultivation as a way of curbing the harm done to the local population by the importation of distilled spirits. Namely, proceed with cultivation of cannabis and ban imported alcohol.
This is also the first time this specific discussion – alcohol vs. cannabis – has arisen in a national state legislature discussion about legalization quite like this anywhere in the world.
Specifically, instead of “legalize and tax” like alcohol – the mantra of many early American states like Colorado and Washington State, Nepal at least, is taking a directly different approach. Literally to accept cannabis as a drug and recreational substance while moving people away from distilled alcohol. And further doing so specifically as an act of public safety.
Western European nations if not North American ones, take note.
However, this is also a trend that is already showing up in the United States if not Canada all by itself. It is absolutely why the big beer and alcohol companies have invested early and big in this business.
Nepalese politicians clearly seem to want to make a different kind of statement right from the get go. Including potentially banning any cannabis company or funding that is directly tied to alcohol sales – or in the more likely inverse, giving a market alternative to global brands like Constellation. North American brands will sell well in a tourist market specifically there for outdoor sports, spiritual rejuvenation, or a bit of both.
Background on Nepal
Image: Gavin Yeates, Flickr
Chances are you know about as much about Nepal as, well, most people do. It is a small, relatively open country on the edge of a much larger Tibet. Nepal and Tibet literally meet at the Himalayas and share Mount Everest. Tibet being the land of the exiled Dalai Lama and the site of that movie with Brad Pitt.
Nepal is also mostly Hindu, although there is a wide smattering of religious belief in the country that includes Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Sikhism. And unlike Tibet, Nepal can be reached with a simple tourist visa.
It is for this very reason that such debates in the Nepalese parliament have taken on such an interesting geopolitical tint.
A Quick History of Cannabis and Nepal
Just like other countries touching the Himalayas, cannabis is hardly a “new” development. Indeed, this region of the world is likely to be home to many intriguing indigenous cannabis species – including of the intriguing “purple” kind. For those without a degree in cannabis cultivation, purple coloured cannabis, particularly in the wild, comes from areas that are cold at night – see Hindu Kush, albeit from Afghanistan.
Like other countries subjected to geopolitical forces of the early 1970s, the country was also forced to abandon its cannabis cultivation as part of the Cold War and War on Drugs that targeted this part of the world. Politicians are now calling for that to end.
Beyond tourism however, and local economic development (almost 50% of the economy is still subsistence farming), cannabis is deeply interwoven into local tradition and religion.
February 21 is known as the “Night of Shiva” – where millions of Hindus make religious pilgrimages to holy sites in the highest mountains in the world. Shiva is one of the three gods in the Hindu triumvirate.
Brahma is the creator of the universe. Vishnu is the preserver of it. Shiva, however is the destroyer of the universe in order to recreate it.
Coming as it does a month before the spring equinox, the ritual to Hindus is not one of violence but rather one of the rebirth of spring and renewal just around the corner. It makes sense that cannabis would be associated with the same.
In Nepal, in other words, there is a political and economic turning of the wheel for the new decade that is also spiritually motivated at least, by ancient and traditional Nepalese traditions that are quite literally, as old as time.
There are many ironies along the path towards global cannabis legalization. Too many to count. But surely one of the oddest was always going to be the reacceptance and relegalization of cannabis in China.
The path so far has been, at a minimum, tortured.
Ritualistic, religious, and medical use of cannabis is mentioned in Chinese texts as early as 3,000 years B.C. and medical literature for the last 2,000 years. Fast forward through Imperial dynasties, the western Age of Empire and exploitation, a cultural and political revolution and two world wars, and it took China until 1985 to actually declare cannabis “illegal.”
During the 19th Century British occupation, the majority Muslim Xinjang region of the country was a major cannabis producer (and exporter) to British India.This was done legally and under tariff until 1934 when the communist government cut off legal trade.
Currently,punishment for possession yields10-15 days jail time and a 2,000-yuan (approximately $300) fine. Illegal sales, however, carry the death penalty. Last year, China executed 10 people convicted of drug trafficking in a public space to send a strong statement about the launch of a new anti-drug campaign. It certainly sent a message.
But to Westerners, in particular, a highly confusing one.
So where is the “market?” And how and where is cannabis being slowly reintroduced to the country in the age of global reform?In 2003, they issued regulations to normalize the industry.
Hemp Is Widely Farmed
Farmers in the northerly province of Heilongjiang province, near Russia, are producing hemp legally these days – bound for industrial, medical and edible commercial use. The crop is highly profitable for farmers – bringing in about USD $1,500 per acre.This is far more than other crops like corn. Chinese authorities had, until earlier this century, turned a blind eye to its production. In 2003, they issued regulations to normalize the industry.
This production region also accounts for half of all farmland currently under legal hemp production, globally.
That is not a typo.
More Than Half Of Global Cannabis Patents Are Chinese
During the 20th Century,as cannabis reform moved on, not to mention western medical knowledge expanded about the plant, no surprise, the Chinese government began to lend support to a burgeoning industry and medical research. That also began surprisingly early. During the Chinese involvement in the Vietnam War during the 1970’s, the government needed a source of cheap clothing material for soldiers. They also needed cheap, accessible medicines with strong anti-bacterial properties, particularly in the humid jungle.
Given the highly politicized nature of the plant itself, not to mention current geopolitical developments shaping the global industry, Chinese exports are likely to stir a global conversation.Approximately half of the world’s 600 cannabis patents are now held in China, rivalling the potential of Israel on both the cannabinoid medicine and medical device front.
These days, there is a greater appreciation than ever for “traditional” Chinese medicine,long stigmatized by Western approaches to the same, far from China. The discovery of the so-called “endocannabinoid system” of the body by Israeli scientists at the turn of the century also supports this sea change. Including not only the use of cannabisbut other natural herbs and procedures like acupuncture to stimulate it.
The Chinese domestic medical cannabis trade, in other words, is ready to take off in the world’s largest greying population. The horse has, obviously, left the barn in the West.
But what does all this mean for non-Chinese competitors not only in Chinabut outside of it, as the drug heads for export crop status?
Cannabis Trade Wars Are In The Offing
Given the highly politicized nature of the plant itself, not to mention current geopolitical developments shaping the global industry, Chinese exports are likely to stir a global conversation.
President Donald Trump’s administration, it should be remembered, allowed a British CBD import to enter the U.S. pharmaceutical market this summer (while still banning all U.S. producers from entering the same thanks to delays on rescheduling domestically). It is not an unreasonable prediction to make, certainly after Trump also struck a deal with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to delay the date of Israeli medical cannabis to the rest of the world in exchange for political support in moving the nation’s capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
A U.S. “ban” on Chinese-sourced cannabis would be one of the most natural responses in the world for the current American administration, which has not only used the cannabis trade card before (Israel, UK) but has yet to move on rescheduling the drug at home.
What To Expect If Considering Importing
Tread carefully. While Europe (at least to North Americans) has its eccentric quirks when it comes to international business, the situation in China is far different.Tread carefully, and find local partners where possible.
Beyond appalling penalties for getting the paperwork (or etc.) wrong, there aremany differences in business, medical and even broader culture that are completely foreign to Westerners (in particular).
Tread carefully, and find local partners where possible. Where to meet Chinese partners?
Chinese investors are beginning to enter particularly European markets via conferences. In the past several years, while they are still a trickle, Chinese doctors, investorsandscientists have begun appearing in the West. Particularly in more medically oriented forums in Europe.
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