00:00Take a look just at the share reaction. Tilray shares currently higher by about 10 percent. You were as high
00:06as 18 percent earlier in the day.
00:09Put this into context for us. If we did see this reclassification into, you know, a less dangerous category for
00:17cannabis, what would this in practice mean for your company?
00:21So, number one, you see the amount of shares. I just had a chance to look at it before I
00:26came on air and over 20 plus million shares have traded today.
00:30So you see the interest in that. You know, it's not what it just means for a company.
00:35That's not what, you know, I only look at it, what it means for patients out there, what it means
00:41for the individual cannabis world.
00:43And I've been, you know, doing this and as I created Tilray back in 2019 and out there telling the
00:51story of the benefits of cannabis.
00:53And unfortunately, I've always tried to how do I legitimize cannabis and the complaints, all the smell you've walked on
01:00the street, you think people are just getting high.
01:02But there's so many benefits from a medical standpoint. And we have a president today that really believes the benefits
01:09of it.
01:09No different than he did with psychedelics. No difference what they're doing with peptides in regards to legalization or looking
01:16for research.
01:18So Tilray today is one of the largest cannabis companies in the world with over 7 million square feet of
01:24grow around the world that we built out the infrastructure.
01:27We sell cannabis in over 21 countries and we're one of the largest providers of medical cannabis.
01:33And again, today is going out and doing the research no different than psychedelics, what cannabis can do for cancer,
01:40cancer, cancer patients, what it can do for epilepsy in regards to pediatrics, et cetera.
01:47So that is the big thing that ultimately that I'm excited about and what we can do to change the
01:52world.
01:53I am curious about, you know, what this sort of means for an increase in business, obviously, on a state
01:58by state basis, in some cases, city by city basis here in the U.S.,
02:02we've already seen an embrace of both medical and recreational marijuana use with the reclassification pending, assuming that does actually
02:13happen here.
02:14Does that actually bring in a whole new set of customers? Are you basically still just going to be kind
02:18of dealing with the same pool?
02:20So, number one, Tilray today cannot sell any cannabis in the U.S.
02:25So don't we sell no cannabis in the U.S.
02:27And I took a different fork in the road and I went into the beer business and the beverage business
02:33and other businesses in the U.S.
02:34So I was able to do that.
02:36I also looked at how can I infuse drinks with ultimately hampered or THC.
02:40So from our standpoint, what it allows us to do is start working with the FDA and taking some of
02:47the research that we've done in other countries
02:50and going to the FDA and getting the approvals to sell cannabis for cancer patients, for epilepsy, for sleep and
02:57for all the other things that we believe it could do.
03:00So that is the big thing.
03:01Is it an instant business for us today?
03:03No, but I'll tell you, is there a big business there afterwards?
03:08Absolutely.
03:08And I see what's happening internationally for us today.
03:11We sell over $100 million of cannabis internationally that just sold through patients for medical reasons.
03:17We sell $200 million of cannabis in Canada today, where Canada is the only country for recreational, but it's both
03:23medical and recreational cannabis.
03:24So, again, if you take the U.S., which is, you know, the largest country from a standpoint, from a
03:31medical standpoint, what it can do for Tilray is tremendous.
03:34And what Tilray has already in place, it has infrastructure, it has grow, it has brands, it has research that
03:40we've done all over the place that we can ultimately transplant here.
03:44And we've already talked to the FDA and that in regards to things that we're able to get going in
03:50a quick, you know, motion here.
03:51So, you know, to build on that, the U.S. isn't a market that you play in yet.
03:57But assuming, I mean, that it is reclassified cannabis as a Schedule III drug, I mean, do you have any
04:04working timelines for when the U.S. would be a viable market for you to enter?
04:09Listen, we have the playbook.
04:11We have the research.
04:13We have, you know, all our different, you know, we have our parapens.
04:18We have the genetics that we've used around the world that we can bring here pretty quickly.
04:24We have research that we've done in regards to what it does for nausea within cancer patients to get to
04:31the FDA in a quick manner.
04:32So could we be in a business within six months?
04:36Absolutely.
04:40The other sort of bugaboo in all this, too, Irwin, and I am curious, and this is on the U
04:44.S. side, is also getting a more federal or less more coherent laws when it comes to actually transaction, meaning
04:52the banking laws.
04:53Obviously, it's kind of haphazard here in the U.S.
04:55In some cases, you can use a credit card.
04:57In some cases, you still have to use cash.
05:00Let me tell you something.
05:02I've run many businesses, and this has been the most difficult business because Canada, in regards to scheduling and being
05:09a Schedule I, in regards to dealing with banks, even though we don't do business in the U.S., we've
05:16had to ring fence or other businesses to show none of our money comes from cannabis.
05:20Opening a bank account, we recently just bought this company, Brewdog, in the U.K., and what we've had to
05:26show, none of our money comes from cannabis.
05:28So it's been a difficult situation.
05:31So federal legalization, from a federal standpoint of medicine, from a medical standpoint, just makes my life and our company's
05:38life a lot easier in the way we can deal with banks and the way we can able, you know,
05:43from a capital standpoint and raising capital is something that I would look forward to.
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