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Cannabis: Is Medical Marijuana A Worthwhile Stock Market Investment?

Please bear in mind any investments you may make on the stock market can go down as well as up. If you plan to invest in the newly forming medical marijuana industry make sure you can afford to lose the investment. Don't lose your shirt.

Take a quick scan over the daily news output on the giant Google News machine and the differences between British cannabis news, and that published by the rest of the world are plain to see, and show in no uncertain terms just how far out of touch the British government are when it comes to the legal status of marijuana.

While the UK newspapers concentrate on their propaganda campaign with stories of mental health issues, in the United States cannabis is now a bona-fide investment on the stock market.

Not that Prime Minister Gordon Brown would care to recommend it to the British public as an investment opportunity.

But if you have managed to squirrel away a couple of soon-to-be-obsolete pounds sterling, you could do a lot worse than think of investing in the infantile American medical marijuana industry.

So what are the options?

Cannabis Science Inc

Recent advances in science have opened the door to develop, produce, and commercialise, a variety of effective whole plant cannabinoid based pharmaceutical products with a wide variety of important applications.

Although cannabis has been used medicinally for thousands of years, until very recently little was known about how it actually worked. Some uses of cannabis are well known, such as alleviating nausea and stimulating the appetite for people with AIDS and cancer.

Other well-known uses include chronic pain, and reducing muscle spasms associated with neuromuscular disorders like MS and spinal cord injuries. Some current uses are poorly understood, such as its effectiveness in alleviating certain autoimmune disorders such a Crohn's Disease.

But you can be sure the CEO of Cannabis Science Inc, Dr Robert Melamede Ph.D, will be putting every ounce of his being into bringing his cannabis based lozenge to market.

Share price

As with anything which is a little bit controversial, the share prices for Cannabis Science stock have proven a little bit volatile over the last 6 months.

In April 2009 the price of Cannabis Science stock was languishing down around the $0.40 cents mark but after a summer of activity which saw Cannabis Science sack its then CEO Steve Kubby, the stock price has soared as high as $1.40, only to crash down to a historical low of around $0.15 cents. The start of August witnessed the stock attaining the stratospheric heights of $1.40 again, only to settle down around $0.40 cents as we go to press today.

Medical Marijuana Inc

The story behind Medical Marijuana Inc should ultimately end in a Hollywood blockbuster being produced as the Chief Executive Officer of Medical Marijuana Inc, Bruce Perlowin, served federal jail time for running a marijuana smuggling operation worth over $100 million dollars.

Entrepreneur Perlowin was importing marijuana by sea from Colombia, using a fleet of vessels which according to the FBI, would have out-numbered the navel fleet of many small countries.

Faced with the problem of where to actually unload his fleet of vessels Perlowin bought his own pier in San Fransisco Bay, even though he currently lived in Miami where he had spent his childhood.

He then set about building a surveillance and communications network to oversee his operation, which would have been able to withstand one of San Fransisco's famous earth quakes.

During his trial it came to light Perlowin had put in place a contingency plan which would have put his communications network at the disposal of the San Fransisco authorities if an earthquake were to strike, (or indeed if the Russians nuked California).

On his release from prison Perlowin got involved in a couple of bona-fide enterprises unrelated to marijuana.

After running a number of successful business's in a number of different industries including health and wellness and telecommunications, Perlowin came up with the idea of standardising the system medical marijuana dispensaries use in the fulfillment and distribution of marijuana to their clients.

How does it work?

Medical Marijuana Inc offer medical dispensaries and collectives an electronic payment card, which the clients use to buy their cannabis from the dispensary.

This creates a system which the IRS (or even the FBI) can plug into at any time to keep a check on exactly how much trade a dispensary is carrying out, showing the authorities that the dispensary owner wishes to do everything in his power to comply with state laws regarding medical marijuana.

After a slow start it was announced recently Medical Marijauan Inc had signed up 5 more dispensaries for a total of 28 to date, in the US and Canada. Like any new idea it takes a little bit of time to catch the imagination. But Medical Marijuana Inc are well on their way and it would be a foolish person who was to bet against Bruce Perlowin creating another $100 million dollar marijuana business.

Share Price

Following a 1 for 10 forward split of its stock, Medical Marijuana's share price dropped from over $1.00 down to $0.25 cents.

What that means is the company wanted to generate some new stock, and to do so it takes one share worth $1.00 dollar, and turns it into 10 shares worth $0.10 cents each. Generating a whole bunch of new stock, albeit at a lower price. But the value remains in the company all the same.

Over the last 4 months the stock price has fluctuated from a high of almost $0.70 cents to a low of around $0.28 cents. As we go to press today the price stands at around $0.38 cents, but knowing Bruce Perlowin and his track record I wouldn't bet against this stock succeeding even if it does rollercoaster every now and then.

Summary
Cannabis? Get on it, regardless of what the British government tells us about how dangerous it is. The truth is 25 million American citizens who have legal access to medical marijuana know otherwise, and it can only be a matter of time before the UK comes up with its own version of a national medical cannabis operation. Maybe not this year or next, but its sure to happen, just as sure as politicians will help themselves to public money.

Keep a check on how the individual stocks are performing by searching on NASDAQ , for the symbols CBIS (Cannabis Science Inc) and MJNA, (Medical Marijuana Inc).

Source

Medical Marijuana Inc. (MJNA) is truly a forward looking company.

Looking back, it began in 2003 as Berkshire Collection, Inc. (BKCL) of Ontario, Canada. According to a complaint filed 12 Jun 09 by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) against Blackout Media (BKMP) and its principal Sandy Winick of Toronto, Berkshire Collection was one of 59 subsidiaries spun off from Blackout Media Corporation, formerly known as First Canadian American Holding Corporation, (FCDH).

The SEC complaint alleges these 59 subsidiaries had no legitimate business purpose and were just "public company shells", and that Winick profited at least $3.2 million from selling shares in these "shells" from 2004 through 2007.

On 23 May 05 Berkshire Collection changed its jurisdiction to Oregon, at the same time issuing a 1 for 1,000 reverse split.

I have never before in my life seen a 1 for 1,000 reverse split. A reverse split is typically a last ditch effort to prevent a company from being delisted on an exchange. According to MSN Money, "reverse splits are like a message from management that the underlying business trends are so rotten, they won't be enough to get the stock price up to snuff." Small shareholders, those holding less than 1 share after the reverse split, are cashed out. They're lucky if they get a penny on the dollar.

On 31 Jan 2007 Berkshire Collection changed its name to My Newpedia Corp (MYNW). This incarnation lasted until June of 2008 when it issued 211,926,840 shares of common stock, realizing $100,000. Then My Newpedia changed it's name to Club Vivanet, exchanging 12 shares of MYNW for 1 share of CVIV. Then the merged entities, now named Club Vivanet (CVIV), "took back" 210,117,998 shares in a 1 for 20 reverse split and posted a stunning net profit of $26,040 for 2008.

The Statement of Operations found on page 16 of the Annual Report for Club Vivanet for 31 Dec 08 states that it spent $751,359 on sales and marketing in order to post a profit of $26,040 on revenue of $818,992. While this was more than double the net profit of $12,624 for the previous year, it doesn't seem particularly forthcoming to term the growth "meteoric" as Perlowin does repeatedly.

In April of 2009 Club Vivanet (CVIV) became Medical Marijuana Inc. (MJNA):

We thought at first we'd call our corporation Marijuana Inc. But when you say to someone ... you're in the Marijuana Business, you do get that weird, kinda strange look. But when you say 'We're in the Medical Marijuana Business' ...I don't care where I am, everyone's interested. Not only are they interested, sometimes they're passionately interested because they've heard the stories and they think people should have the freedom to choose the medicine that really does help them.

On 25 Mar 09, the day the name change was filed, the stock was worth 4 cents. The name change and 10 for 1 forward split occurred on 28 Apr 09. The day before the split and name change CVIV closed at 22 cents. The day after, MJNA closed at 62 cents. It has trended downward since.

Perlowin explains it like this, pointing out he got out of prison 19 years ago:

I was the largest marijuana smuggler in West Coast history. The media dubbed me the King of Pot. As the newspapers said, I had a fleet of boats larger than most country's navies, and that was probably true. Made $100 million bucks by the time I was thirty. And then I went to jail for nine years and got out and made some huge businesses in the phone card and international telecom business. We've always had meteorically growing businesses after I got out of prison. Well, before I got out of prison too...

Just look at what happened to our stock from day one and you can see we sort of know know what we're doing in this industry.

He explains that he is "monetizing" the public's desire to legalize marijuana and that buying stock in his company is casting a vote for the legalization of marijuana.

When Obama and the attorney general Holder said that they'd no longer interfere with state laws on marijuana issues, all of a sudden dispensaries and collectives and co-ops started popping up like weeds all over California ... and, all of a sudden, legitimate business people started getting involved and wanting to get involved. And then "we" come along...

This is one of those statements were you don't really know where to begin.

What is this "all of a sudden" legitimate business people are getting involved? Is he saying those dispensaries and co-operatives that have been doing it for years and who built the industry he finds so exciting are not "legitimate business people"? What does this say about The Green Cross - in business in San Francisco for five years and featured in June as an example of how medical marijuana had become mainstream? And, by the way, they've all been using plastic cards of all kinds for years: debit, credit, stored value, ID, and so forth. A manager of one dispensary told me 5 years ago, "Bank of America loves us."

Are we also supposed to believe that the "legitimate business people" who have been waiting for Obama to start the green rush before they got involved will not have the wherewithal to set up a business account with, oh, Bank of America or Wells Fargo, but instead will be "cash based"?

While Perlowin wasn't really sure if New Mexico had passed a medical marijuana law or not and was astonished at what he found when he came to California in February and told his doctor he had insomnia so he could get in a dispensary and see what it was like, he assures us he is the one to tell us all how to do it.

I actually believe New Mexico is one of the places - don't quote me on that because my big focus is on marijuana, on California - but I think New Mexico is one of the places where it's legal. You can look at any of the movement websites like NORML or MPP.org - that's a great one, MPP.org - and they really keep you up-to-date on what's going on in each state. So I think it is. And in some places you can have co-ops, like in Colorado and California, and some places you're allowed to grow your own. There's no standardized laws or rules, which for a public company like us makes it really lucrative, or potentially lucrative. Because we can help come in and standardize the industry and help regulate the industry. Again, from the bottom up. Typically a company like this can move much quicker than the government can.

It's all a mish-mash. Every county in California is different from every city. And every state has different rules. And if you standardize it - it will take a few years - but that's one of the things that we're here to do, is to help standardize it. And again, starting with the most lucrative of all, the tax remittance.

And he's going to begin by re-assembling his old organization, from administering taxes paid by the sick and dying for medicine. When asked if he has any plans to own a dispensary:

"If Nevada ever legalizes it - it'll be on the ballot in 2012, November - I would love to have a dispensary inside a casino, growing the marijuana plants..."

Obviously, Medical Marijuana Inc. CEO and King of Pot Bruce Perlowin didn't have "medical marijuana" in mind when he said this. When the host points out this has the appearance of exploitation he replies:

Yeah. So in that case, yeah. In the beginning. no. In the beginning all we want to do is provide all the tools for the dispensaries or the co-ops. In fact, we're going to be doing seminars on how to open up a dispensary and we want management contracts with the dispensaries, not just for the tax card but for inventory control, for grading and standardizing the marijuana for software, for the doctors to use, and evaluating whether sativa or indica should be used for glaucoma vs. cancer vs. MS vs. headaches..."

In the meantime, he hopes to buy "homesteads" of 1 to 5 thousand acres all over the country and grow vegetables or something on them until hemp is legalized, and then convert them to hemp farms. All this from administering taxes paid by the sick and dying for medicine.

It's an intriguing business model. He states they've decided 60% of the profit will go to the company, and 40% to charity.

My job is to empower people, and specifically (because of another model) empower women. 40% of our profits goes to The Global Family and WE (Women Empowerment) because their job is to make sure this wealth goes all over the world to create a thousand millionaire women, who will create a thousand millionaire women each, and then they take over the world in what's known as a global coup, but it's really a coochie coo..

Again, it's difficult to figure out where to begin. Seems a bit sexist (not to mention boorish) to me, but what do I know? Besides there are more pressing issues. For instance, just ten minutes previously he stated 40% of "revenues" would be going to the local community: 10% to schools and or the women's council (because women won't take bribes and kick-backs, but men will); 10% to another local problem like fire or police (speaking of bribes); 10% to another city in America; and 10% to some international problem.

Obviously, how much of what goes where isn't really important. All that's important is that 40% of the stockholders earnings from administering taxes paid on medicine by the sick and dying will go to some charity somewhere. No doubt medical marijuana patients will get a warm glow knowing their disability stipend is going to increase the supply of female millionaires in third world countries.

Among a nebulae of disconnects is that it never occurred to Medical Marijuana Inc. that there are medical marijuana patients that can't afford medicine, that are losing their jobs and their homes, that can't pay lawyers and court costs. And a lot of them are men.

Perlowin says he doesn't smoke marijuana, except rarely.

My prescription's for insomnia. And I don't know if I have insomnia, I'm so excited about what we're doing I can't sleep at night so I jump up and email. I go to sleep. I wake up. I email. And so I'm thinking, 'I really want to go see these dispensaries but you can't get in without a medical condition and I don't want to lie about a medical condition. I won't do that. I'm CEO of a public company, I've got to keep everything really straight. So, I'm thinking, 'wait a minute...' and if I don't have my computer I'm sitting there awake all night, just thinking. So that's clinical insomnia. That's insomnia. So I got my medical marijuana card for being too excited. But I haven't used my marijuana medicine yet because if I do I won't answer my emails all night.

As for the morality of taxing medicine? As for what happens when The Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act (HR 2835) is passed? As for the fact that you don't get a "prescription" for medical marijuana, you get a "recommendation"?

HR 2835 will move marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act's Schedule I to Schedule II. Among other things this will mean marijuana will meet the legal definition of medicine and that doctors can prescribe it the same as pharmaceuticals. And this means it will not be taxed in states such as California where the people think there's something sleazy and just plain wrong about taxing medicine.

Well, maybe by then Perlowin will have his upscale pot emporium in some swanky Las Vegas casino.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-14883-Santa-C ... ijuana-Inc

Thanks both of you for that insight into the possible future direction of legalized MaryJ. I must say half way through Puffin's article I was almost ready to leg it round the share buying place and stick the pension fund on the nose. Then reality kicked in and it will be just another BIG business, so I'll leave it under the mattress and hope that the Groat is still legal tender in a couple of years when I retire.
I might invest in a new lamp for the 400w HPS though as I reckon its going a bit dim (rather like me I'm afraid).

Cheers guys, always good to read the latest

If gangsters are making money well anyone would make money,Talk about a sound bet! take coffeesshop "utopia" for 1 example,Worth a cool 1 million euros! thats just the shop & licence .

Many thanks to both of you Puffin and Afriend, very interesting reading and its definitely good to keep up to date on the MMJ Scene, if only we were a little closer to that here in the UK.

Puffin, as ever a useful and informative article- you truly bring information and knowledge to this forum, both things I feel are very important.
There IS a British company, quoted on the London markets, that is involved in medical marijuana. Its called GW Pharmaceuticals, and can be found using their ticker of GWP. Its gone from a share price of aprox 27p at the beginning of the year, to currently trading at aprox 85p per share.

You're most welcome. I, too, feel that knowledge and info is very important; especially in this day n age. The politicians and governments of the world have lied to the people for far too long. The real truth is now finally starting to come out about the many, many, many benefits the Cannabis plant has, medically, and in so many other ways. Peace.

thankyou puffin for keeping an eagle eye open to this.........maybe someday the ACD will form a corp and produce what we know to be one of THE most useful crops on the planet....and use the profits wisely against the corporate entities...we got the knowlege,we got the manpower,we got the will......one day in the distant future we might even have the right restored back to us .......a dream but a nice dream