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UK's first 'own your grow' initiative gives patients chance to invest in cannabis Sarah Sinclair Business of Cannabis Friday 16 Jun 2023 A new initiative is giving patients the opportunity to ‘own their grow’ and invest in the UK medicinal cannabis sector for the first time. British cannabis company, Grow Lab Organics (GLO) is collaborating with cannabis patient group, Cancard, to establish the first ‘community-owned’ medicinal cannabis facility in the UK. Having already secured £1m in seed funding, GLO is looking to raise a total of £5m and is giving patients the chance to invest in the company for a minimum buy-in of £100 through the community fundraising platform Seedrs. The company has successfully obtained a conditional licence to produce medicinal cannabis products on the Isle of Man, where the Government introduced its own regulatory framework, governed by the Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC) in 2021 to allow companies to grow, manufacture, distribute and export cannabis products. Unlike the mainland UK, where licences are issued by the Home Office only once a facility is EU-GMP compliant, companies on the island can be granted a conditional licence before the facility is operational. Construction on GLO’s facility will take place in two phases, with phase one expected to take around 12 months to complete. Once fully operational, it will house 30 cultivation rooms – of which 22 will be 200 square metre flowering rooms and six drying rooms – where it will produce a number of unique cannabis strains. In the meantime, the company has secured a Wholesale Dealer Licence (WDA) from the Department for Health and Social Care in the Isle of Man to trade medicinal cannabis products from third parties. GLO’s CEO Alex Fray, who is also a director of the Isle of Man Government Department for Enterprise Business Agency, commented: “Medicinal cannabis has attracted a huge amount of investor interest in recent years as the sector develops rapidly. “When we began the GLO journey, we recognised the importance of having investors who share our vision and values. We are committed to enabling the medicinal cannabis community, who sit at the heart of what we do, to have a voice and share in the opportunity as we begin to build our facility. GLO has also developed a proprietary blockchain technology which enables consumers to trace how each plant has been grown and processed. Fray added: “Together with our proprietary technology, this collaboration provides a huge opportunity to open source learning that can be shared with patients and doctors, building further Giving patients a seat at the table According to polling undertaken by Cancard in 2021, a large majority of respondents said they wanted the opportunity to benefit from the sector. Speaking to Cannabis Health, Kirsty Morrison head of relationships at Cancard, said: “Cancard represents a patient community of over 70,000 people, and when polled one of the highly agreed upon suggestions was access to a community-owned cultivation opportunity with 91% in firm favour. “This was such an important aspect of patient needs we couldn’t not do anything. They felt they had been involved in the progression of this industry for years and were being left behind. Even if they had the money, there was no way for them to get involved.” She added: “One of the best feelings was seeing so many small investments come in – those £100 or £150 investments – because every single one of those is a little show of faith.” Cancard members were given priority access to purchase shares in the company, with the funding round opening to the general public 48 hours later. Those who invest will get a share of any profits, as well as a say in how the business is run, with Cancard founder Carly Barton, joining GLO part-time as chief community officer and responsible for ensuring the views of patients are heard by those at the helm. “We truly want to empower a historically disenfranchised group of amazing people with bags of potential. This is about bringing everyone together and no matter how many shares you own, you have exactly the same say in the business,” said Barton, who was one of the first people in the UK to obtain a legal cannabis prescription. “We know that most patients are as passionate about ‘Grow your Own’ as we are. In the current climate with the laws as they stand this is as close to that as we can get. Patients can now, because of this initiative, ‘own their grow’. Barton added: “We have been inundated with messages of support and love from the community, and I would like to congratulate all of our members taking part – they are now part-owners of a cannabis company and that is a pretty incredible bit of movement.” Over 200 people have invested in GLO since the campaign launched last week, with seed investors including Chase & Status star, Saul Milton, and DJ Mark Wilkinson. In a press release Milton – a cannabis patient and Cancard holder himself – said: “I understand the challenges many in the community face every day. To date the legal market has been predominantly dominated by large players focused on making money, rather than serving patients. “GLO is doing something totally different, bringing together medical experts, scientists, the legacy market and patients in a model that is designed to enable the community to have safe and secure access to quality medicine whilst also furthering medical understanding of the capabilities of this plant. GLO will benefit all its stakeholders and that is why I am so excited to be involved in this project.” https://businessofcannabis.com/uks-first-own-your-grow-initiative-gives-patients-chance-to-invest-in-cannabis/
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