Billionaire John Whittaker To Enter Cannabis Industry Via Plans For $136M Facility On The Isle Of Man

Infrastructure transport and real estate investment group, the Peel Group, governed by billionaire John Whittaker as the company’s chairman and largest shareholder, plans to build a £100 million ($136 million) cannabis cultivation facility on the Isle of Man, where its headquarters are located, reported CNBC.  

Interestingly, the self-governing nation has not legalized medical marijuana, which means that cannabis grown and produced at Peel Group’s facility will be distributed around the world, and not allowed to be used on the Isle of Man.

Cannabis Industry As Lucrative Addition

The economy of this small island in the Irish Sea, between the U.K. and Ireland, is mostly built around financial services, manufacturing and tourism. According to Chris Eves, finance director at Peel Group, marijuana may be a fruitful industry addition for the island.

 “I think medicinal cannabis, pharmaceutical cannabis, is the next real opportunity for the island to steal a march on this side of the Atlantic,” Eves told CNBC, adding that the U.S. and Canada have already powerfully debuted. He further explained that the company is planning to secure maximum potency of the product.

Peel Group plans to lease big warehouses to one or more tenants with licenses to produce medical cannabis. These licenses are still to be issued by the island’s government, but many applications have already been submitted.

Eves noted, however, that people with prior marijuana farming skills may need come to the island.

“At this point, what we’re looking to deliver here is purely pharmaceutical,” he said. “We’re not necessarily pushing for change. We think there is a business case for it without [recreational use]. Undoubtedly, that feels to me as the natural progression. I think societies are generally accepting of that direction of travel.”

Are Billionaires Recognizing The Great Potential Of The Industry? 

While Whittaker has not expressed his stance on full cannabis legalization, this move clearly reveals his support of medical marijuana. On the other hand, many billionaires publicly supported cannabis reform over the years. Just last year, billionaire Charles Koch said that “cannabis prohibition is counterproductive” spending $25 million to support legalization.

Billionaires known to support the cause in one way or another include:

• Jeff Bezos, former CEO of Amazon AMZN, whose net worth is estimated at $208.3 billion. This June, before Bezos stepped down from his position, Amazon came out in support of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act) and told the world it will no longer test for marijuana for most of its job positions. More recently, the corporate giant discussed cannabis in Washington where it lobbied for legalization.
• Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors TSLA whose net worth is projected to be around $161.3 billion, smoked a joint on Joe Rogan’s podcast and then tweeted that he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420.” 
• Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft MSFT, with a net worth of around $130 billion, announced in 2014 he had voted to legalize cannabis in his home state of Washington.
• Photo: Courtesy of Euro Realist Newsletter - Flickr: John Whittaker MEP via Wikimedia Commons