EXCLUSIVE: International Cannabis Companies Share Solutions For Global Expansion

As the business of cannabis grows in size and opportunity, many companies in the space are wondering about the challenges of international expansion.

Peter Simeon, partner at Gowling, asked this question of a panel of experts at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference on April 20 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. 

Doing Business In Germany: Jonathan Lubosch-Haenisch, CEO of Iuvo Therapeutics, says that after having established operations in Germany, making the expansion to other European countries was rather easy given Germany’s high barrier of entry from a bureaucratic perspective.

“Germans do have that accredited high standard of qualification,” he said. Succeeding in the most challenging regulatory landscape gave the company the experience to spread out into other countries in the region without major regulatory hurdles, he said. 

'This Industry Is All About Regulations': For Oren Shuster, CEO and Director of IM Cannabis IMCC IMCC, the main challenge in international expansion comes on the supply chain side.

His company started in Israel and later expanded to Germany and Canada.

“We’re working in three countries, each of them has different regulations and this industry is all about regulations,” says Shuster.

IM Cannabis realized that at the end of the day, the toughest regulations end up becoming the standard for the entire company, which covers regulations in more loosely regulated countries, he said.