Aurora Cannabis, one of the world’s largest publicly traded marijuana cultivators, is set to enter the US market in the next few months.
“We’ll be unveiling our hemp-derived CBD strategy to enter the US market over the next few months,” said Cam Battley, Aurora’s Chief Corporate Officer, in a Monday interview with Business Insider.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is a non-psychoactive component of the marijuana plant that’s become a trendy ingredient in food and beverages in jurisdictions where the substance is legal.
The opportunity could be enormous. CBD could become a $1.6 billion industry in the US alone over the next year, according to Vivien Azer, a cannabis analyst at the investment bank Cowen.
And according to a report from the Brightfield Group, a cannabis industry intelligence firm, CBD could become a $22 billion market by 2022.
Battley declined to discuss specifics about the plan. Aurora is set to announce its second quarter earnings for the 2019 fiscal year on February 11, so we’ll perhaps have more visibility into the plan then.
“We’ve long envisioned the future and the enormous value of the US market,” Battley told Business Insider in December of last year, following the passage of the Farm Bill.
Signed into law by President Donald Trump last year, the Farm Bill legalized hemp nationwide. Hemp is a source of CBD, and it’s seen as a way for Canadian marijuana producers to enter the US market while staying onside federal and stock exchange regulations.
While CBD has been linked to a range of health benefits, the science is shaky. According to users, however, it does provide a “chill” or relaxed feeling and can help athletes with recovery after a tough workout. The compound can be infused in everything from beverages, to energy bars, to syrup — which has put many large consumer companies on notice.
It’s also not yet clear how the Food and Drug Administration will regulate CBD products, with the FDA asserting last year that it will crack down on CBD-containing products that purport to have untested therapeutic benefits.
Canopy Growth, a publicly traded Canadian marijuana cultivator and one of Aurora’s competitors, on Monday unveiled a plan to produce hemp in New York state.
Hemp is closely related to marijuana, though the two are not synonymous: Hemp is an agricultural product that by definition contains less than 0.3% THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component responsible for the “high” associated with marijuana.
Marijuana is considered an illegal, Schedule I substance by the US federal government, though it is legal for adult use in 10 states and for medical use in 33.
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