DEPARTMENT OF PENAL LAW CRIMINOLOGY AND SOCIAL LAW

DEPARTMENT OF PENAL LAW, CRIMINOLOGY AND SOCIAL LAW INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL DRUG RESEARCH THE EMERGING LEGAL CANNABIS INDUSTRY: CORPORATE MISCONDUCT ON THE HORIZON? Marthe Ongenaert – 26/09/2019

THE PROHIBITION OF CANNABIS & SHIFT TO ALTERNATIVE REGULATORY MODELS 2

ALTERNATIVE REGULATORY MODELS • Uruguay • Domestic cultivation and Cannabis Social Clubs • Non-profit organisations • Pharmacies • The United States • Legalisation on state level • Commercialisation • Canada • Legalisation on federal level • Hybrid model • Luxembourg 3

THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY 4

THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY • Size • Different activities • • Production & sale of medical and recreational cannabis CBD- products Cannabis seeds Innovation in the industry • The stock market • Green gold rush • Industry associations 5

COMMERCIALISATION VERSUS PUBLIC HEALTH 6

BALANCE BETWEEN PUBLIC HEALTH AND COMMERCIALISATION • Public health perspective • Reducing substance use and harm reduction Public interests • Commercial models • Opening the market to promote the global distribution of harmful products • Normalising use: increasing demand • Minimising damage associated with the use private interests 7

HISTORICAL LESSONS 8

COMMERCIALISATION OF OTHER HARMFUL SUBSTANCES Medicines Tobacco Alcohol 9

SEVERAL HARMFUL CORPORATE STRATEGIES • Influencing and financing scientific research (Subritzky, et al. , 2017) • Financial support to scientists • Financial support to scientific journals and conferences • Influence the public perception of research results • Trying to be part of the policy process (Brownell & Warner, 2009) • Underlining their economic necessity • Inviting politicians to meetings • Distributing their own reports, research, legalislative documents, etc. • Putting pressure on the government • Intense, agressive marketing (Scheuer, 2015) These activities can have a negative impact on public health 10

LINKS BETWEEN BIG MARIJUANA, BIG TOBACCO, BIG ALCOHOL & BIG PHARMA 11

BIG TOBACCO • The industry is making annual losses they invest in growing cannabis companies (Richter & Levy, 2014) • Investments in the cannabis industry can be complementary to their own activities (Barry, et al. , 2014) • Three multinationals are considering to sell cigarettes that contain cannabis • Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and RJ Reynolds • Altria (tobacco) paid 1, 8 billion dollars for the half of The Cronos Group (cannabis) • Rumours about the creation of “Marlboro Greens” 12

BIG ALCOHOL • The cannabis regulation system in Colorado and Washington has some similarities with the alcohol regulation system after the alcohol ban that ended in 1933 (Kleiman, 2014) • Various partnerships and links • Constellation brands paid 4 billion dollars for an investment in Canopy Growth Corporation • AB Inbev collaborates with cannabis producer Tilray and invested 50 million dollars • Molson Coors Brewing Company formed a joint venture with cannabis companies 13

BIG PHARMA • The links are mainly found within companies that offer cannabis for medical use (Bloomberg, 2018) • Tilray has a partnership with the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG • Insys Therapeutics was approved to develop Syndros, a synthetic cannabis drug 14

CONCLUSION 15

CORPORATE MISCONDUCT ON THE HORIZON? • There is a shift towards legalising cannabis • Several countries opted for a commercial model • Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol and Big Pharma have in the past been engaging in harmful business practices • These industries are clearly interested in the emerging cannabis industry Are the same harmful practices that can be observed from Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol and Big Pharma occurring in the cannabis industry and why are they occurring? 16

Marthe Ongenaert Ph. D- researcher Ghent University INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL DRUG RESEARCH E T Marthe. Ongenaert@ugent. be +329 264 84 63 THANK YOU!