South African Firm Gets Cannabis License, Considers Magic Mushrooms
Cilo Cybin Pharmaceutical Ltd. has received the first-ever permit to grow, process, and package marijuana and its derivatives in South Africa. The company thinks that its robust business model and growth potential make it ready to hold an initial public offering within the next 12 months.
Gabriel Theron, the company’s founder and CEO, says they are considering getting a listing in Johannesburg and probably in Luxembourg or on another European stock exchange.
Money Raised Will Primarily Fund Cannabis Production
The company plans to use the money raised by going public to invest in its cannabis-growing operation. The country’s regulatory body, South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, has so far granted 28 cultivation licenses and eased the restrictions so that the sector is expected to boom. The climate in South Africa is ideal to grow top-shelf marijuana at a competitive cost.
Cilo Cybin will use the legendary local genetics, Durban Poison, with its high concentration of THC, the chemical in marijuana that makes you high. The company has already finished building a state-of-the-art cultivation facility that can produce as many as 220 pounds of buds a month. They expect to sell them for $2-4 per gram at wholesale prices.
Shrooms Promise to be Even Bigger Than Weed
The R&D team at Cilo Cybin also plans to extend to other avenues of research, such as biohacking which is a way to boost your well-being with incremental changes in lifestyle using dietary supplements and health-monitoring apps.
And one of the more ambitious directions for growth is the study of psilocybe, or magic mushrooms. It is no accident that Cilo Cybin Pharmaceutical is named after psilocybin, shrooms’ psychoactive substance. The company has already applied for a permit to research this chemical and expects a regulatory shift in the market for psychedelics sometime in the future.
Some studies hint at magic mushrooms, LSD, and similar substances to be useful for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. And Theron thinks that psychedelics as medicines could be an even bigger market than cannabis itself.
