MONTREAL GAZETTE
A major producer of medical marijuana says doctors and specialized clinics are receiving kickbacks from some licensed pot producers in exchange for sending them patients, a practice the company calls unethical and a violation of professional medical standards.
NEWS 1130
You’ve probably seen a medical marijuana dispensary pop up in your neighbourhood. But as the industry continues to expand, a number of ethical questions remain unanswered and what are being called “questionable practices” by some are apparently running rampant.
HUFFINGTON POST CANADA
For these reasons, it is with great disappointment that Tilray has been compelled to terminate our membership with CMCIA. Instead, we will spearhead the establishment of the Canadian Medical Cannabis Council (CMCC), a new association that recognizes our collective responsibility to help assure ethical behaviour from the entire medical cannabis supply chain. The new association's code of ethics is based on six fundamental and non-negotiable principles: integrity, safety, quality, access, security and research.
NATIONAL POST
Doctors and clinics are receiving fees of as much as $350 per patient from medical-marijuana producers eager to snag customer referrals, despite professional rules in some provinces that explicitly outlaw such payments, producers say.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
One of Canada’s largest licensed medical marijuana producers says it has repeatedly been hit up by specialized clinics asking for money in exchange for referring patients to them – a practice that underscores the lack of clear rules governing the relationship between consumers, their doctors and growers in the nascent industry.
NANAIMO BUSINESS NEWS
The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) awards Tilray's Nanaimo production facility Best Industrial Renovation.
THE VANCOUVER SUN
The viability of a marijuana business is still unclear, but giddy entrepreneurs are plunging in left and right. That means tacky, home-grown branding isn’t going to be enough if an entrepreneur hopes to survive, writes Christine Brett of Skyrocket Digital Inc.
TIMES COLONIST
In just a year, Tilray’s massive medical marijuana facility in Nanaimo has become the sixth-largest private-sector employer in the region, creating hundreds of jobs and the prospect of hundreds more if a proposed expansion goes ahead.
CBC
According to a report released on Wednesday by the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation, Tilray generated $48.1 million in total economic output and fostered 395 jobs during the construction and operation phase last year.
CNBC
"We don't have a roadblock in regards to banking; we don't have a roadblock in terms of conflict between state and federal law," said Brendan Kennedy, president of Tilray, which runs a 60,000-square-foot, indoor marijuana facility in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
CTV NEWS
Dana Levinson with CTV news takes a behind-the-scenes look at Tilray, a medical marijuana facility.
HUFFINGTON POST CANADA
I have dedicated my entire career to the health care industry because it's important to me to spend my life doing something that helps people. Now, after more than 25 years, I have decided to leave behind the big pharma establishment in order to embark on a new journey on the cutting edge of health care, as the first CEO of Tilray, Canada's leading licensed producer of medical cannabis.
CAPITAL NEW YORK
Mount Sinai Health System is proposing to work with Tilray, a British Columbia medical marijuana company founded in 2013, to operate a clinical trial that would test the effectiveness of certain strains of the drug on severe forms of epilepsy.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Tilray announced Thursday it has teamed up with researchers at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus to conduct the first clinical trial in Canada to test the impact of medicinal marijuana on PTSD sufferers.
BUSINESSWIRE
Pending regulatory approvals, the UBC-Tilray study is poised to be one of the first in the world to run a large-scale clinical trial examining medical cannabis as a treatment for a mental health disorder.
VANCOUVER SUN
A B.C. medical marijuana producer is seeking approval from Health Canada to sponsor the first study in Canada on the safety and effectiveness of cannabis for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among sexual assault victims, military veterans and first responder personnel.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Nanaimo-based Tilray has constructed a large, pristine operation on Vancouver Island, backed by Seattle private equity player Privateer Holdings, which has pumped considerable dollars into the U.S. tech sector over the years. The sprawling, brightly-lit facility is a testament to medical marijuana’s sanitized future, where staff wear white polyethylene suits and blue gloves when handling the plants.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Private Equity Beat was on hand as Tilray held a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 28 to commence shipping its products. The company hopes to have the space, which is now 70% finished, completed by Sept. 1 with the expectation that it will serve about 8,000 patients.
NEW YORK TIMES
Tilray has since bought a building for $3.5 million and spent $17 million to renovate it. The company employs 65 people, with plans to increase that number to 100. “One hundred new jobs in a community of less than 100,000, that’s a big deal,” Mr. Kennedy said.
NANAIMO NEWS BULLETIN
“We’ve invested to produce cannabis on a scale unlike anything that’s currently available in Canada,” Kennedy said, adding that while other facilities he’s seen are dirty and inefficient, this one is the exact opposite. “We wanted everything to be clean.”
