“Fatherlessness is the leading cause of declining child well-being in our society. It is also the engine driving our most urgent social problems…Yet, despite its scale and social consequences, fatherlessness is a problem that is frequently ignored or denied.”
David Blankenhorn, Fatherless America
Families are microcosms of society. Strong and stable families contribute to social flourishing, while dysfunctional families push society in the direction of breakdown. More than at any point in history, the family unit is broken as a significant number of children are growing up without a father. In this video, drawing from the research of the American sociologist David Popenoe, we explore how absent fathers are harming children and destroying society, and how this problem can be solved.
“Based on the evidence, a strong case can be made that paternal deprivation, in the form of the physical, economic, and emotional unavailability of fathers to their children, has become the most prevalent form of child maltreatment today…fathers are vanishing from family life and only mothers are left to care about the children. And mothers…are not enough.”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
Approximately 40% of children are born to unmarried mothers. Over 50% of marriages end in divorce, with the mother, more often than not, being granted custody of the children. Even in families where the father is physically present, many are not emotionally present in the lives of the children. Many fathers are addicted to their smartphones, or to drugs or alcohol. Others are forced to work long hours, or multiple jobs, to provide for their family in the face of the ever-declining purchasing power of money. But whether emotionally or physically absent, the problem of absent fathers has reached endemic proportions and a mother cannot fill a fatherless void. For men and women possess innate biological differences that translate into different, yet complementary, parenting styles. Women are more compassionate and relationship oriented, while men are more competitive, aggressive, and oriented towards risk-taking and self-reliance. Mothers provide children with a nurturing, safe, and emotionally secure environment; while fathers challenge their children, push their boundaries, and help them cultivate autonomy. As psychological health is contingent on adequately satisfying the need for both independence and relatedness, challenge and emotional security, risk taking and safety, a developing child needs to be exposed to both the paternal and maternal worlds, or as Popenoe explains:
“The significance of gender-differentiated parenting undoubtedly is related to something fundamental in the human condition… Parental androgyny is not what children need. Males and females bring different qualities to children…The burden of social science evidence supports the idea that gender-differentiated parenting is important for human development and that the contribution of fathers to childrearing is unique and irreplaceable.”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
Unfortunately, stepfathers are not a reliable solution to the problem of fatherlessness, as stepchildren are often worse off than children of single mothers. The lack of genetic ties can make a stepfather reluctant to invest time, energy, and resources into the child’s development, and some stepfathers are prone to seeing their stepchildren as competition for the mother’s attention.
“One of the surprising findings of family-related research in recent years is that the presence of stepfathers may actually aggravate childrearing problems and thereby increase the level of negative child outcomes.”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
In two of his books, Families without Fathers and The War over the Family, David Popenoe summarizes the abundance of studies which demonstrate that children who grow up without a physically present and emotionally committed biological father are at a greater risk of suffering from emotional, behavioral, and physical health problems. They are less likely to succeed educationally, more likely to be socially impaired, and as adults more prone to dysfunctional relationships. Girls of absent fathers are more likely to become single teen mothers. Boys are more likely to become criminals and moral deviants. This list only scratches the surface of the known negative outcomes of growing up absent a father.
“Indeed, almost anything bad that can happen to a child occurs with much greater frequency to the children of divorce and those who live in single-parent families.”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
Following divorce, the quality and quantity of the time that children spend with their fathers sharply declines. In the book Divided Families, Frank Furstenberg and Andrew Cherlin explain that after a few years of a divorce only one in ten children have weekly contact with their fathers, while two thirds have no contact at all. Yet even with divorced fathers who maintain contact, most often it is sporadic and superficial and of little to no benefit to the child. In other words, while the mother-child bond is a primal bond that is rarely if ever broken, a man’s bond to his children is heavily dependent on whether he is still in a relationship with the mother.
“Men tend to view marriage and childrearing as a single package. If their marriage deteriorates, their fathering deteriorates. If they are not married or are divorced, their interest in and sense of responsibility toward children greatly diminish.”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
It is because men tend to view marriage and fatherhood as a single package that virtually every society in history has placed great emphasis on the institution of marriage, the primary function of which is to create socially binding ties which hold a man to his wife, for the benefit of the children. Or as Popenoe writes:
“Men have the capacity to father but also the capacity to stray…so all successful societies have imposed social sanctions on men to encourage their fathering behavior. By far the most important of these sanctions is the institution of marriage, the most universally found social institution of all…”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
Up until the mid-20th century, marriage was held to be a sacred contract between a man and woman that was only broken in the most extreme of situations. Since then, the institution of marriage has rapidly deteriorated. Today many people avoid marriage, and of those who do marry, divorce is the statistical norm.
“…if one were specifically to design a culture and a social system for the express purpose of undercutting marriage and fatherhood and men’s contribution to family life, our current society would be close to what would result.”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
The sexual revolution, which commenced in the 1960s, was a major factor in the decline of marriage. Under the guise of sexual liberation, promiscuity was normalized, and with more females willing to engage in low-commitment sexual relations, more men renounced monogamy and marriage in favor of sleeping around. The damage that the sexual revolution inflicted on marriage, fatherhood, and the family, was one of its intended outcomes. In summarizing the ideas of Wilhelm Reich and Herbert Marcuse, two of the intellectual drivers of the sexual revolution, Carl Trueman explains:
“Sex focused on procreation and family is the repressive weapon of bourgeois capitalist society. And free love and untrammeled sexual experimentation are a central part of the revolutionary liberation of society…To transform society politically…one must transform society sexually…the sexual mores of late capitalism, focused as they are on the maintenance of monogamy and the patriarchal family, are actually no longer as necessary as they once were.”
Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self
A societal-wide deterioration in values has also weakened the institution of marriage. Responsibility and commitment to others have fallen by the wayside and been replaced by a narcissistic obsession with ego-fulfillment. While in the past the main function of marriage was to create an economic and reproductive partnership for the sake of raising healthy children, today marriage is seen almost exclusively as a vehicle for satisfying one’s needs and desires, and the myth that romantic love can solve one’s problems remains pervasive. When feelings of infatuation or love wane, therefore, or when a partner feels unfulfilled or incomplete, then divorce – even when children are involved – has become the socially approved solution. Or as Popenoe writes:
“…it was not so long ago that the divorce revolution was given a strangely positive cast in popular culture. If breaking up is better for parents, it was thought, it cannot be all that bad for children. What keeps parents happy should also keep children happy. How can an idea so wrongheaded have been so pervasive? In part, of course, it was a convenient, guilt-retarding rationalization for parents who were breaking up.”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
Clearly, an abusive or highly dysfunctional marriage should end for the sake of all involved. However, for the problem of the absent father to be solved there needs to be a revitalization in the institution of marriage and a reemphasis on the fact that the main reason marriage developed in the first place was to benefit children, not to fulfill or complete the adult partners. “Society, in its wisdom, has recognized that in order to hold the father to the mother and child a cultural tie had to be developed where a biological tie was weak….[marriage] is society’s way of signaling to would-be parents of children that their long-term relationship together is socially important.” (David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers)
While marriage benefits children, committed fatherhood promotes the well-being and fulfillment of men. Family life motivates men to positively channel their aggressive energy, become socially productive, and cultivate the virtues of honesty, trust, self-sacrifice, and discipline, that are necessary to support, and become a role model for, their children. In his book A Sense of Well-Being, the psychologist Angus Campbell notes that in terms of overall life satisfaction the most well-off males are fathers of grown children who are still married to their wives. The unhappiest, on the other hand, are divorced men and unattached men who have no wife or children. As men have more difficulty forming social relationships than women, a man without a wife and children is often a man without any close relationships at all.
“It is not just that particularly healthy and competent and morally upright persons are more likely to marry, but that marriage actually promotes health, competence, virtue, and personal well-being…There is a civilizing effect for men in merely being in the company of women and children, an environment which typically promotes life-enhancing values…With the continued growth of fatherlessness…we can expect to see a nation of men who are at worst morally out of control and at best unhappy, unhealthy, and unfulfilled.”
David Popenoe, Families Without Fathers
But it is children who suffer the most from an absent father, and as children are the future of society, society suffers by extension. Absent fathers translate into broken children, and broken children are at risk of growing up to be broken men and women who perpetuate societal dysfunction.
“What society does to its children, so will its children do to society.”
Cicero, De Officiis
And so as Popenoe concludes:
“…strong families with involved fathers in life-long marriages are irreplaceable for a strong and stable moral order, for adult well being, and ultimately for the well being and success in life of their children….If we continue down the path of fatherlessness, we are headed for social disaster…In the final analysis, every father counts.”
“You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding.” ~Terence McKenna
You are a pivot with a point of view. You are a wave crashing onto the shores of eternity. You are a unique independent soul-signature emerging from a universal interdependent spirit molecule. You are the cosmos becoming aware of itself. And you are vital for the progressive evolution of the interconnectedness of all things, whether you realize it or not.
But you must overcome yourself to understand this. Codependence must be overcome by independence which must be overcome by interdependence. You must be able to transcend your uninitiated ego to engage your self-actualized ego. In short: you must philosophically crush out…
Forget ‘know thyself’:
“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” ~Lao Tzu
Embrace ‘question thyself,’ ‘humble thyself,’ and ‘rebirth thyself’ instead.
On the surface, the Ancient Greek aphorism “know thyself” seems like pretty good advice. But the deeper you dig into it, you will see how impossible that task truly is.
You can never really know yourself. You can question yourself. You can deconstruct yourself. You can transform yourself. But knowing yourself is like trying to know running water. It’s constantly changing. It’s always moving, transforming, and adapting. It’s never the same thing in any given moment.
The best you can ever do is loosely understand yourself. So, in order to come to a greater understanding of yourself, embrace ‘question thyself,’ ‘humble thyself,’ and ‘rebirth thyself’ instead. These aphorisms are philosophical kick-starters. They shove you out of your comfort zone. They launch you outside the tiny box of thought. They push you past the stifling envelope of “rules.”
This is where philosophy becomes self-inflicted, imposed, exacted, wreaked, and meted out. This is where a philosophy as unique as your own fingerprint is fertilized and begins to gestate.
Without questioning, humbling, and rebirthing there can be no fertilization. There is merely what has come before: the typical, the standard, the mainstream, the conventional, the orthodoxy, and the predictable. But with questioning, humbling, and rebirthing there can be fertilization. There is potential for creativity and novelty: for the atypical, for the unorthodox, for the uncommon, for the extraordinary, for the never-before-seen to reveal itself.
‘Self-inflicted’ has a ruthlessness about it that propels you past your fears. It gets you out of your own way. It goes for the jugular. The term “inflicted” has shock-value. It’s just ruthless enough, and has just the right amount of bite, to turn away the rigid, the close-minded, and the certain, and to welcome in the flexible, the open-minded, and the curious.
But “giants” are needed to see both further than we can alone. The more the merrier. Lucky for you, it’s the age of information, and there are giants galore.
The power of standing (but not remaining) on the shoulders of giants
“Having a personal philosophy is like having a pet marmoset, because it may be very attractive when you acquire it, but there may be situations when it will not come in handy at all.” ~Lemony Snicket
Proactively questioning, humbling, and rebirthing yourself is about discovering a path of your own. Striking out on your own path is no easy task. It requires brutal self-honesty and a unique flavor of rebellious courage that most people lack. That’s why it’s called self-inflicted and not self-induced or self-discovered. That’s why it’s called a leap of courage and not a stroke of comfort.
Here’s the thing: If you don’t have a personal philosophy, life happens to you. But if you have a personal philosophy, you happen to life.
But nothing happens in a vacuum, including philosophizing. There must be fodder. There must be substance. There must be vital ingredients. There must be dynamic ideas. There must be other philosophies connected to other philosophies upon which we can build the foundation of our own philosophy. Everything is connected, after all.
We generally don’t have a choice of what these foundational philosophies will be. They are typically whatever religion or ideology we were raised with. Whatever knowledge was handed down by our forefathers. Some of these philosophies are healthy (in accordance with universal laws) and some of them are unhealthy (not in accordance with universal laws), but all of them (religious and scientific alike) must be faced with intense incredulity and deep questioning.
They must be questioned, deconstructed, and rebirthed into our own words, lest they stagnate and merely become stale biproducts of our ancestor’s parochial reasoning. The shoulders of giants were meant to be stood upon, but not planted on. Without the leap of courage between one giant’s shoulder to the next, there can be no progressive philosophy.
While philosophy dies inside answers; it thrives inside questions.
Questioning is the original leap of courage. It’s the foremost philosophy. Without it, all further philosophy is dead. So, the would-be self-inflicted philosopher must question –always. But the first act of questioning (so called sacrilege) is the most important. The first giant’s shoulder must be questioned most of all. The first mask must be broken in order to understand that it’s masks all the way down.
For example: if the first giant’s shoulder was Jesus, you must question him. Question everything about him and his philosophy. Absorb all you can from the lessons he taught, then subsume it all in a kind of philosophical muscle memory and then leap onto the next giant’s shoulder. Having taken the boon of his knowledge into deep consideration and then surrendering it to deep questioning, the next leap of courage is onto another giant’s shoulder.
This is not blasphemy; this is providence.
The same goes for Buddha, Muhammad, Nietzsche, Darwin, Thoreau, Rumi, and all the giants of history. No matter who was the first giant’s shoulder you stood upon, whether secular or religious, take their knowledge into deep consideration, weigh the probabilities using logic and reasoning, weigh the morality of it using universal law, and then move on to the next giant’s shoulder with your humility intact.
Then keep jumping. Keep taking the leap of courage, the leap into the unknown. Master what you can. Then be diligent about embracing Beginner’s Mind, lest the Master’s Complex turn you into a dogmatic basket-clinger clinging so tight to your basket that you crush all your precious eggs.
If philosophy is a razor, then Self-inflicted philosophy is a double-edged sword that the philosopher stabs him/herself with in order to achieve continual rebirth and absolute self-overcoming. It’s self-improvement over comfort. It’s self-mastery over self-preservation. It’s progressive evolution over regressive stagnation. It’s existential calisthenics.
Discover your own philosophy through recycled mastery:
“There is a kind of quiet violence in philosophy’s work. Philosophical thinking that doesn’t do violence to one’s settled mind is no philosophical thinking at all.” ~Rebecca Goldstein
The first key to creating your own unique philosophy is understanding the concept of recycled mastery. If you master someone’s philosophy—say Nietzsche’s, for example—then you have merely become a Nietzschean. But if you master his philosophy and then cast it off to engage the Buddha, then you’ve just added another vital ingredient that can get you out of the one-dimensional trap of belief.
Then, if you can manage another leap of courage out of Buddha’s philosophy, there is nothing stopping you from doing the same with Jesus’ philosophy, or Kierkegaard’s, Plato’s, Aristotle’s, Kant’s, Sartre’s, Camus’, Gandhi’s, and Rumi’s. The list is endless. There’s a veritable forest of giants out there just waiting for you to take the next leap of courage onto their shoulder. There’s always more to learn. And anyone can be a giant if you have the eyes for it.
The second key to creating your own unique philosophy is cultivating imagination. So, you’ve got all this knowledge. You have all these philosophical ingredients. You have all these vital dots just waiting to be connected into a dynamic matrix of unique thought.
Now it’s time to get down to the creative process. It’s time to be imaginative. It’s time to take the best (in your opinion) from Nietzsche’s philosophy and mix it with the best from Buddha’s and then put your own creative spin on it, in your own words. No plagiarizing. Then do the same with George Cantor and Eckart Tolle.
Keep doing it. Do it with three philosophers, five, twenty-five, one-hundred-and-five. Borrow; transform; gift. Birth; death; rebirth. Learn; unlearn; relearn. Master; recycle; remaster. Condition; uncondition; recondition. Thesis; antithesis; synthesis; meta-synthesis.
Keep questioning all the way. Keep recycling yourself. Keep reinventing yourself. As Scott Adams said, “Awareness is about unlearning. It is the recognition that you don’t know as much as you thought you knew.”
It’s all yours for the taking. You’re the artist and these are your pallet of paints. You’re the chef and these are your tasty ingredients. You’re the philosopher and these are your vital ideas. So, paint something original. Color outside the lines. Cook something that’s never been tasted before. Philosophize like nobody else has philosophized before. Dare to create something that will add to the progressive evolution of our species.
About the Author:
Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.
US States that have legalized medical cannabis see a significant decrease in health insurance premiums compared to states that keep it illegal. Legalizing cannabis nationwide could save Americans more than $16 billion in health insurance costs.
A new research paper in the US that looked at health insurance premiums in various states found that individual market health insurance premiums decreased after the implementation of medical cannabis laws.
Following the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes, these states saw a small reduction in premiums in the first five years, followed by a reduction in year six of about $500. The biggest effects were not immediate.
“We find a statistically significant decrease in health insurance premiums starting in year seven post-MCLs [medical cannabis laws], and this downward trend is persistent for following years.”
Researchers found “statistically significant” decreases in health insurance premiums starting seven years after medical cannabis became legal in a particular state, with the downward trend continuing in the following years.
In the seventh, eighth, and ninth year following the implementation of a legal medical cannabis market, researchers found a reduction of health premiums of about US$1,500-$1,700 per year.
The paper’s authors speculate that the savings increase over time as more people begin using cannabis for medical purposes, and any shifts from more conventional medications to cannabis may happen over time with a healthcare provider.
Due to how medical insurance in the US operates, by collecting premiums from all enrollees and paying expenses for the subset of enrollees who need medical treatment, researchers also note that these lower premiums are enjoyed not just by medical cannabis users but by all in states with legal medical cannabis access. In other words, if the costs of using the medical system go down, everyone pays less.
States with access to medical cannabis saw rates of use of the medical system decline. This is also because these health insurance premiums do not cover cannabis used for medical purposes. As individuals who may have otherwise used medication that would have been at least partially covered by health insurance are instead using cannabis, the cost to the system itself goes down, benefitting all who pay in.
However, these effects take time. Researchers found decreases in health insurance premiums starting seven years after medical cannabis became legal in a particular state, but the downward trend continued in the following years.
“We find a statistically significant decrease in health insurance premiums starting in year seven post-MCLs, and this downward trend is persistent for following years,” the paper notes.
“Our results are important as health care expenses, including health insurance premiums, have been growing faster than inflation and comprise an increasing share of a household’s budget.”
Researchers used figures from Arizona, Connecticut, and New Jersey as these are the only states with seven or more years of post-implementation data. The study also excluded states like California, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado that legalized medical cannabis before 2010.
To better understand how these savings could benefit the health insurance sector moving forward, researchers looked at 18 US states that had legalized medical cannabis between 2010-2021 that were not included in the survey results because the systems there are not yet seven years old.
If these states have a similar experience to those observed in this study (Arizona, Connecticut, and New Jersey), researchers estimate a similar savings of about $1,600 per person annually, an annual health insurance premium savings of approximately $9.6 billion.
The paper also estimates that if medical cannabis laws (MCLs) were enacted nationally, the US could have a savings of at least $16.8 billion.
Maine Governor Janet Mills has approved legislation to provide tax relief to players in the state’s marijuana industry. The bill will partially bypass the Internal Revenue Service, which prohibits cannabis businesses from making federal tax deductions through IRS code 280E, and grant licensed cannabis businesses access to state tax deductions.
The law expands on previous legislation that already provided licensed medical cannabis operators with tax relief and will allow players in the industry to make tax deductions for business expenses associated with running a manufacturing facility or registered dispensary, or carrying out trade as a registered caregiver.
A statement from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) noted that the legislation would allow licensed cannabis operators to make business expense deductions on their tax returns such as the medical cannabis industry and other conventional sectors.
Marijuana operators in the state will undoubtedly be pleased with the news as cannabis businesses in most states have consistently complained about their large tax burden. Cannabis-related taxes and fees in America’s state-legal cannabis industry are so high that a significant portion of consumers are turning to the illicit market where products are significantly cheaper.
Introduced by Senator Teresa Pierce, the cannabis tax bill would give businesses in the sector the chance to recoup some of the costs through state tax deductions, potentially allowing them to pass on some of their savings to their customers and reduce product prices. According to the bill, the state of Maine would recover the funds it will use for the tax deductions by taking part of the tax revenue earned from medical cannabis sales.
Pierce explains that while businesses that can write off their business costs have an average tax rate of 40% of gross income, businesses without access to tax deductions often pay up to 70% of their gross income as tax. She called the difference in tax code unfair and appalling while testifying before a joint committee and said that it forced business owners to experience losses in order to hire and maintain their workers, offer benefits and reinvest in the business.
This makes it extremely difficult for small operators with limited access to capital to operate in the industry and encourages the development of monopolies by large, multistate companies. Given that Maine’s medical cannabis industry already had access to these tax deductions, Pierce said that it was only fair to extend access to the recreational cannabis industry as well.
This tax relief can allow companies to scale their operations, such as by acquiring more cultivation equipment from manufacturers such as Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX), in order to serve more customers.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/ACTX
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CNW420 spotlights the latest developments in the rapidly evolving cannabis industry through the release of two informative articles each business day. Our concise, informative content serves as a gateway for investors interested in the legalized cannabis sector and provides updates on how regulatory developments may impact financial markets. Articles are released each business day at 4:20 a.m. and 4:20 p.m. Eastern – our tribute to the time synonymous with cannabis culture. If marijuana and the burgeoning industry surrounding it are on your radar, CNW420 is for you! Check back daily to stay up-to-date on the latest milestones in the fast -changing world of cannabis.
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Police in Brantford, Ontario, say they have arrested 18 people and seized more than 80,000 cannabis plants and 5,000 pounds of dried cannabis in a raid at an industrial building on Wednesday, August 9.
The raid of the illicit, large-scale grow operation is the result of an investigation launched in July by the Members of the Brantford Police Service Tactical Intelligence Generated Enforcement and Response Unit (TIGER) and the Ontario Provincial Police Provincial Joint Forces Cannabis Enforcement Team (PJFCET).
As a result of the investigation, a search warrant was obtained and executed at an industrial building located on Mohawk Street near Crandell Avenue on Wednesday, August 9, 2023.
Police say the search warrant was executed with the assistance of the Brantford Police Service (BPS) Emergency Response Team (ERT), the OPP Provincial Joint Forces Cannabis Enforcement Team (PJFCET), Canada Border Services Agency, BPS High Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), BPS Criminal Intelligence Unit, and BPS uniformed officers.
As a result of the search warrant, officers seized the following:
83,435 cannabis plants in various stages of growth, with an estimated value of $83,435,000 ($1,000/plant)
5,147.8 pounds of dried cannabis with an estimated street value of $12,869,500 ($2,500 a pound)
Total estimated value: $96,304,500.
While executing the search warrant, officers also located and arrested eighteen people who they say appeared to be directly involved with and living within the illegal grow operation. These individuals each stand charged with unlawfully producing and/or cultivating cannabis without authorization, contrary to S.12(6)(a) of the Cannabis Act.
A preliminary study has revealed that psilocybin, the main psychoactive agent in magic mushrooms, may have applications in migraine treatments. Researchers from Yale School of Medicine recently ran the first-ever clinical trial on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics against migraines.
Led by Dr. Emmanuelle Schindler, the research team determined that psilocybin could reduce the number of weekly migraine days by one-half in people with chronic migraines. Furthermore, the researchers determined that even a single dose of the psychedelic could reduce the intensity of migraine attacks by a significant degree in only two weeks with no adverse side effects.
Although prior studies had shown that psilocybin may be able to treat cluster headaches and migraines, those results were mostly anecdotal. The Yale University study, on the other hand, compared the effects of a placebo against psilocybin in chronic migraine treatment.
Researchers recruited 10 individuals with chronic migraines for the study. The participants completed a “migraine diary” that consisted of monitoring their migraines for two weeks prior to the study. The research team then carried out a double-blind study where they gave the participants either a placebo or a low psilocybin dose once and then after two weeks. Study participants who received the psilocybin reported a large reduction in migraine days just a week after the first psilocybin dose.
Although this is the first study that specifically analyzed psilocybin’s application in migraine management, it isn’t the first to look at the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. A growing body of scientific literature has proven that psychedelics have various health benefits when taken in medical settings under professional guidance.
With most of these studies focusing on mental health, they have revealed that psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, ketamine and MDMA can treat various mental disorders. Like in the Yale study, psychedelics delivered their benefits at relatively minimal doses and did not cause any serious side effects.
Some researchers have also been interested in psychedelics as potential pain remedies and have tried to understand the underlying mechanisms of psychedelics and how they affect the brain to see how psychedelics could relieve pain. Prior research has found that psychedelics may be able to treat chronic pain by interacting with serotonin receptors in the brain and disrupting connections and processes associated with chronic pain.
However, with most psychedelic studies focusing on their potential mental health applications, there is little research on their applications in pain treatment. More studies will be necessary to fully understand how psychedelics such as psilocybin affect pain and whether they could be used to develop alternative pain medications.
At the moment, other entities such as Compass Pathways PLC (NASDAQ: CMPS) are also looking into how various psychedelics can be used to treat different mental health and other indications.
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To me, it feels like only yesterday that Canada legalized cannabis for adult use. But as anyone who has been working in the industry for an extended period of time would say: this industry moves very fast.
Who could forget (for better or worse) the image of a smiling Bruce Linton manning the counter of a Canopy-owned retail store in Newfoundland, ringing in the first non-medical, legal sale of cannabis in our country’s history?
Just before and after legalization, LPs were the darlings and focal point of the industry. A new licensee announcement by Health Canada on a Friday was major news (and cause for investors to throw money hand over fist at them).
How can we forget these LPs racing to get licensed, racing to build out grow space, racing to get listed on publicly traded exchanges and racing to set up shop in Lesotho, Malta and pretty much anywhere in between? They were not only going to take over Canada, they were going to take over the world! And why not? These Canadian companies had a global head start that no one else had (sorry Uruguay, we never saw you as a threat).
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As the LP section of the industry began to settle in, governments at the provincial level began getting their house in order as it related to retail sales. The government of our most populated province, Ontario, originally indicated that the retail market would be entirely government owned and operated, only for the Conservative party to unseat the Liberals and do a total 180 by allowing for privately owned retail.
Who can forget the great Ontario cannabis retail lotteries, which seemingly gave something to complain about to every industry stakeholder except for the many average Joe and Janes who won the golden tickets and the right to apply for a license to operate a retail store? Who can forget the controversy over what sorts of arrangements were to be permitted between brands and lottery winners, and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario finding its way along with everyone else as the process unfolded?
And who can forget how we suddenly went from a very limited number of stores to an explosion of stores – the nature of the regulatory regime effectively removing the ability of would-be store owners to fully appreciate where their soon-to-be competitors would be operating relative to them.
“Clustering,” as the politicians in Mississauga like to say, and Queen West becoming ground zero for cannabis retail in the City of Toronto where more than a few local residents were distressed that their beautiful neighbourhoods had suddenly “gone to pot.”
Then the reality of the market set in.
LPs who had been expanding capacity at a rapid pace and geographically as well began to discover that the global market was not ready for the robust supply that they had been preparing. The domestic market was solid, but perhaps did not contain the demand that some of these LPs had forecasted.
Large, expensive facilities that were given attractive names by their owners began to close. Operating at a continual loss, because money was being spent to expand, was no longer an acceptable way of doing business. Share prices began to crater. Investors demanded better, and founders and boards were pushed out and replaced by more experienced executives who were expected to right the ship. Some of them were able to do so. Some of them steered their companies right into insolvency protection or bankruptcy.
Suddenly, many of the smaller, initially less ambitious (either by design or necessity due to lack of resources) LPs were the ones who were doing well – making products that consumers desired while operating within their means, and at a profit.
The retail side of things fared no better(at least certainly not in Ontario). Having to pay rent far above market (thanks to opportunistic landlords capitalizing on the rush of store applications) started to catch up with many owners. Throw in a pandemic that absolutely destroyed foot traffic for many stores for years, while being surrounded by competitors on every corner; it’s no wonder many went out of business. At first it was mom and pops, but then some of the larger brands/chains began to follow.
Lawsuits and arbitrations within the industry increased exponentially. Companies that had entered into business arrangements together during the earlier kumbaya phase of the industry were suddenly at odds with each other.
So, where do we go from here?
Many would argue that there were, or are, too many LPs and retailers for the domestic market. As unprofitable operators close up shop, we move further towards a level where supply meets demand and the remaining operators can (hopefully) continue to operate for the long term.
There are still untapped areas of the industry that most of the provinces and territories have kept wholly or partially closed to date. Cannabis tourism has yet to take off in a way that may be possible due to (depending on the province) restrictive rules on consumption, sales or both.
When festivals, hotels and restaurants are permitted to sell cannabis products, and health and other stores can carry CBD-only products, we should see a further decrease in stigma, new consumers entering the market and a general uptick in sales across the board. On the regulatory side, more lenient rules on packaging and promotion are likely to appear on the horizon at some point. It’s now clear that the sky has not fallen because of legalization, and the tight regulatory leash that government gave industry participants can be loosened up a bit. Indeed, and for example, some provinces have already done away with the requirement that retail stores cover up their windows to the outside world.
We certainly will never again see the same rush, expansion and excitement that we saw during the first few years, and that’s okay. At this point, the industry does not need expansion and excitement, rather it needs to settle into a realistic model that becomes sustainable for years to come.
It certainly doesn’t mean that those “early days” weren’t fun while they lasted, and that we can’t all look back and reflect on the wild ride we’ve been on – that is the premise of maturity, after all.
Matt Maurer is a partner and co-chair of the Cannabis Law Group at Torkin Manes LLP in Toronto, Ont.
A major problem underlying the cannabis industry’s continuing financial struggles has been overcapacity. In provinces that allow private retailers, there are too many shops competing for too few customers to cover costs. And nationwide, producers have been making more cannabis than the retailers need.
Four years ago, the industry looked promising. In 2019, Ontario’s first 24 licensed cannabis shops opened with a bang. Those privately-owned retailers initially averaged about $1-million in monthly sales each, thanks to minimal legal competition and average prices above $12 a gram.
Their estimated monthly contribution margins, i.e. after paying the wholesale costs for their products, were similarly impressive. The margins averaged around $300,000 apiece, more than covering other expenses such as employee wages and store rents. That was major money for simply selling marijuana.
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Quebec’s government-owned outlets also did well, despite charging prices nearer to $8 a gram. Their per-store monthly sales averaged $950,000 in spring 2019.
The retailers’ successes also inspired the hopes of producers. After struggling to raise output during the initial months of legalized recreational cannabis, producers finally caught up with demand.
But those days are past.
Producers hit turbulence first. In summer 2019, their shortages became surpluses, and prices began falling. Those firms have been downsizing ever since.
Retailers’ troubles came later, as store counts surged. Ontario’s total now exceeds 1,750, with more to come. The province’s retail expansion boosted total sales, but shrank each store’s market share. The rising competition also depressed in-store prices, which fell by more than half.
Consequently, monthly store sales there now average just $96,000. The estimated margins are just $24,000, making it tough to pay the bills.
Private-sector shops elsewhere face similar troubles. Monthly store sales now average just $98,000 in Alberta and $89,000 in Manitoba.
By contrast, government-owned retailers are fine. They generate sales of $540,000 a store in Quebec and $300,000 in Prince Edward Island.
What makes those public-sector shops more successful?
Interestingly, it’s not higher prices. The estimated 74 per cent combined retail-wholesale markup at the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) is well above Quebec’s 38 per cent and PEI’s 34 per cent.
Rather, the key difference is retail density. PEI currently has just two stores per 100,000 residents, and Quebec has only one.
By contrast, private-sector retailers have far more shops: 11 per 100,000 residents in Ontario and 16 in Alberta.
The density difference means private-sector retailers sell more per capita, presumably drawing more consumers away from illegal dealers. But public-sector agencies sell more per store, making their stores more sustainable.
One solution to private cannabis retailers’ woes is brutally simple: Let stores go under. We’ve already seen some close or enter bankruptcy. We’re also seeing consolidation into larger chains.
But letting the free market run its course has a downside: more illegal cannabis sales.
Fewer legal stores mean less customer convenience. Probably more expensive products, too – with less competition, retailers can comfortably raise prices. And research indicates that convenience and price are key factors when cannabis consumers choose between legal and illegal vendors.
A better solution might be for provincial governments to craft more store-friendly policies.
For example: Instead of restricting shops to only selling cannabis, let them sell other products to cover their operating costs. Nova Scotia stores already sell cannabis and alcohol together, while Newfoundland lets some small-town general stores have cannabis sidelines.
What provinces should not do is merely tinker with regulatory details and hope that somehow fixes things.
For example, Manitoba is removing its 6-per-cent cannabis sales tax. Similarly, OCS, Ontario’s sole supplier to private-sector cannabis stores, is dropping its estimated 31-per-cent wholesale markup to about 25 per cent.
Those financial measures are helpful but hardly game-changing. And they might simply push retail prices lower. Government regulations need bigger changes.
As for the producers, cutting excise taxes could help them most. For example, instead of charging a fixed $1 a gram minimum, make the tax a straight 10 per cent of the producer’s price.
Ultimately, if governments don’t want to see more businesses disappear and the illegal industry grow, they need to make substantial changes.
(CNW) Toronto — MediPharm Labs Corp., a pharmaceutical company specialized in precision-based cannabinoids, today announced its financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2023.
Second Quarter 2023
Completed our first commercial delivery to the United States. The delivery was comprised of clinical trial material for a fully funded large-scale phase two clinical trial.
On April 1, 2023, MediPharm closed the acquisition of VIVO Cannabis Inc. in an all equity business combination.
Revenue has doubled versus prior year with the incorporation of VIVO.
Gross profit was positive for the third consecutive quarter. Largest Adjusted Gross Profit increase in company history and best adjusted gross profit since Q4 2019 at approximately 21 per cent.
Successful integration of VIVO, including executing a restructuring and cost savings program that will save approximately $7M on an annualized basis as we progress towards our previously communicated synergy target of $7–$9M. (2)(3)(4)(5)
Adjusted EBITDA(1) of negative $3.2M, and improvement of $3.2M or 50 per cent versus Q2 2022 and remained consistent with Q1 2023 despite the incorporation of VIVO which historically had an Adjusted EBITDA(1) of negative $2M per quarter.
Strong balance sheet, relative to our peers, with $14.7M of cash, less than $3M of debt and a plan to generate cash in the near term.
Continued progress solidifying leadership in cannabis-based pharmaceutical industry
Subsequent to the quarter, on July 28, 2023, the company completed its first delivery of cannabis clinical trial material to a US research partner. The delivery of pharmaceutical cannabis product was for a National Institute of Health funded clinical trial, following receipt of an import permit from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Health Canada export permit.
The company has provided a full response to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in relation to the initial foreign drug site inspection of its Barrie facility regarding a new Drug Master File (DMF) being referenced in a recent Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA). This is the first US FDA Audit of a purpose-built commercial cannabis facility in Canada. MediPharm continues in-depth correspondence with the FDA regarding its November 2022 on-site inspection related to Drug Master File being submitted as part of an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) submission by an international pharmaceutical partner.
Tremendous growth in medical cannabis
The Canadian medical cannabis revenue for Q2 2023 was $3.8M versus $0.2M in Q2 2022 and $0.6M in Q1 2023 driven by the integration of the VIVO medical channel, Canna Farms.
Canna Farms has serviced patients since 2013 and is a top-ten medical channel in Canada. Since the transaction Canna Farms has listed MediPharm products for sale direct to patient. This synergy creates better margin where MediPharm produces these products at higher volume or were being purchased by third party manufacturing. It also assists in patient recruitment and retention as we are able to provide additional selection and more standardized medical products.
International Medical revenue in Q2 2023 was $3.0M versus $0.9M in Q2 2022 and $1.8M in Q1 2023 representing a 249 per cent and 66 per cent growth respectively. The growth of International Medical was largely driven by the integration of VIVO’s Australian business, Beacon Medical Australia.
The Beacon Medical Australia flower portfolio is currently the number three flower brand by sales and continues to have year over year growth in pharmacy patient sales. The company has prepared for our launch of Beacon Medical oil and vapes. It is anticipated these new high margin products will have the same success as their flower counterparts.
In July 2023, the company entered into an additional supply agreement with a top tier generic pharmaceutical company in Brazil. Under the agreement, the customer will apply to the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency for a number of cannabis product approvals. MediPharm has received similar approvals in Brazil with other pharma customers. It is anticipated the delivery of additional products could begin in Q1 2024, and substantially increase the current Brazilian revenue. (2)
Progress towards profitability
Revenue for Q2 2023 of $9.6 million increased approximately 120% versus Q2 2022 and 64 per cent versus Q1 2023 despite the seasonality of the Canadian Adult use and Wellness market.
Q2 2023 gross profit was $0.8M/8.1 per cent and was impacted by several discrete items including inventory write-downs, fair value adjustments, and severance for restructuring. Adjusting for these items gross margin was approximately 21 per cent. This is the third consecutive quarter of positive gross profit. Gross profit continues to improve, driven by product mix, production efficiencies and cost reductions. Management continues to focus on efficiencies to drive gross profit.
Total Opex, which includes G&A, Marketing and selling and R&D expenses was $7.5M in the quarter. Adjusting for severance and some other discrete items, normalized Opex was approximately $6.5M which includes $2.3M from the incorporation of VIVO. Retrospectively, if VIVO were included in our Q2 2022 results, Opex in Q2 2023 is down approximately 35 per cent or $3.7M.
Solid Balance Sheet
MediPharm ended Q2 2023 with $14.7M in cash and cash equivalents with approximately $3M of debt. This financial position is expected to give MediPharm longevity to execute on its short-term sales plans and provides the balance sheet strength to support the company’s long-term growth strategy. In addition, we expect that the company’s favourable summary judgement, now scheduled in front of the Court of Appeal for October 12, 2023, will strengthen the company’s balance sheet going forward. In addition, the company has real estate assets held for sale with the ability to generate cash of approximately $2M to $3M in the near term. (2)
Management commentary
David Pidduck, CEO, MediPharm Labs commented, “We are very happy with our Q2 performance lead by the smooth VIVO integration that is ahead of all cost synergy targets. We are excited to have new employees, new business units, new products and capabilities and new investors and stakeholders.”
Greg Hunter, CFO, MediPharm Labs added, “In Q2, we continued to make progress by growing our revenue base, improving gross margins, reducing expenses and reducing cash burn as we drive towards profitability. We have also demonstrated that we can quickly integrate and drive synergies through acquisitions.”
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Financial summary
Three months ended
June 30, 2023
$’000s
March 31, 2023
$’000s
December 31, 2022
$’000s
September 30, 2022
$’000s
June 30, 2022
$’000s
Revenue
9,583
5,843
5,616
7,262
4,362
Gross profit
855
387
211
(1,190)
(532)
Opex(a)
(7,516)
(2,923)
(5,122)
(5,444)
(6,607)
Adjusted EBITDA(b)
(3,191)
(3,090)
(3,634)
(4,974)
(6,345)
(a)
Opex includes general administrative expense, marketing and selling expenses and R&D expenses.
(b)
Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure. See “Non-IFRS Measures”.
Q2 2023 financial results conference call
MediPharm’s executive management team will also host a conference call and audio webcast on Monday, August 14, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. eastern time to discuss the Company’s financial results.
Participants are asked to dial in approximately 15 minutes before the start of the call.
Audio Webcast:
An audio webcast will be available by visiting the following link here.
For those who are unable to participate on the live conference call or webcast, a replay will be available at www.medipharmlabs.com/investors approximately one day after completion of the call.
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