• Sales performance indicators for powerboats from NMMA data dashboard show robust growth on a 12-month rolling year-over-year basis
• Victory Marine looks at vertical growth to create a private-label design and expand its inventory and sales team
• The company participated in the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show with an aim of meeting with prospects and increasing listings
• Wholly owned subsidiary Excalibur Trailers USA Corp. to steer revenue growth into 2019 yacht sales and boating season

Victory Marine Holdings Corp. (OTC: VMHG) is a recreational marine provider engaged in yacht sales for both new and used boats, brokerage and consultancy services. Located in Miami, Florida, the company has a large inventory of boats, offers insurance services to yacht owners and offers financing arrangements to buyers. With over 20 years of combined industry experience, Victory Marine’s team is set to capture its fair share of the market through negotiated partnerships with manufacturers.

The latest data dashboard version (http://ibn.fm/5ywsv) of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) shows impressive wholesale and retail sales performance indicators. For instance, the retail unit sales of new powerboats continued to enjoy 83 consecutive months of growth, with sales up by three percent on a 12-month, year-over-year basis through August 2018.

On the other end, wholesale shipments of powerboats through July 2018 ended on a strong note, with growth of 12.3 percent on a rolling 12-month year-over-year basis. This, combined with the positive growth signal from the U.S. Purchasing Managers Index, shows a vibrant market that Victory Marine can leverage to establish itself as a key industry player.

In 2017, the NMMA reported that the industry recorded sales of $39 billion. This presents a huge opportunity for yacht sales, brokerage and consulting companies like Victory Marine to spread their reach, both vertically and horizontally. On the vertical front, the company has already established partnerships with select manufacturers. This is part of a long-term strategy to establish its own pipeline of unique, private-label design.

The near-term strategy of the company is to expand its inventory base and grow its sales team. This involves hiring experienced and qualified professionals, as well as participating in exhibitions that potential clients frequent. One such exhibition that the company took part in was the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) (http://ibn.fm/njEqi). The show, held from October 31 to November 4, brought together over 1,500 boats and more than 110,000 visitors drawn from over 50 countries.

In an earlier address, before the exhibition, Victory Marine Holdings CEO Orlando Hernandez noted that the show is one of the largest and most prestigious in the world. He also expressed optimism that the 2019 boating and yacht sales season, which the show ushers in, means a lot in terms of revenue potential for the company.

To enable the company to position itself as a world-class marine trailer manufacturer, Excalibur Trailers USA Corp., its wholly owned subsidiary, was granted approval by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) International. This will enable it to build new custom trailers for both commercial and recreational boat transport. All powerboat segments are reporting increasing demand for trailers, and this gives a positive outlook to Excalibur. In terms of states, Florida leads the pack in trailers, powerboats and accessory sales, reporting a 10 percent increase in 2017 to $2.9 billion. Texas and Michigan are the next states in the queue with $1.7 billion and $982 million in sales respectively.

This growing demand creates a strong revenue stream for Victory Marine that is very scalable. Going into the busy boating season, the company is looking forward to seeing how the revenue stream will strengthen and align it toward its long-term vision.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.VictoryMarineHoldings.com

• Recently completed $40 million acquisition of Sky Unlimited, LLC in an effort to diversify
• Demand for hydroponically grown plants greater than ever
• Early and healthy investment in hemp solidifies company’s position as a leader in the industry

As hydroponic and cultivation sectors are evolving from home operators to larger commercial cultivators, one company is making strides to stay ahead of the industry curve. Sugarmade, Inc. (OTCQB: SGMD), a leading publicly traded hydroponics and restaurant supply company, recently acquired Sky Unlimited, LLC in a move aimed at staying abreast of market trends, diversifying its brands and broadening its global reach. Sugarmade, with its move into the industrial hemp space, anticipates increased benefits for its shareholders from this acquisition and recently increased its revenue guidance for calendar year 2019 from $30 million to $70 million (http://ibn.fm/C0vRG).

As marijuana legalization spreads throughout the United States and across the world, the demand for hydroponic cultivation has never been higher. Sugarmade, one of the largest publicly traded hydroponic supply companies, has been investing in the legal cultivation sector. Hydroponically grown plants grow up to 50 percent faster than plants grown in soil and produce higher yields of better quality, thanks to the nutrient-rich water base involved in the hydroponic growing process (http://ibn.fm/VMg6i).

Currently, the industry is moving away from home operators, instead calling upon commercial cultivators to meet the demand for hydroponically grown plants (http://ibn.fm/ISEiU). After its recent acquisition of Sky Unlimited, Sugarmade is positioned to anticipate even more accelerated growth, as the former’s revenues stem almost entirely from the wholesale market. Furthermore, PRNewswire reports that Sugarmade CEO Jimmy Chan commented, “This acquisition will further boost our already very rapid growth rate,” allowing the company to “diversify revenue streams to now include the larger commercial cultivator operations.” Chan added (http://ibn.fm/xrDnU) that this “is expected to be highly accretive to common shareholder value.”

Aside from its recent acquisition, Sugarmade has also been broadening its hemp-related portfolio by investing in hemp production. The investment has paid off, as this year’s crop promises (http://ibn.fm/OSOHW) to be “a robust crop with a high market value.” Sugarmade primarily supplies hydroponic equipment for indoor agriculture and was attracted to hemp growing in an effort to diversify its presence in the hemp industry, which has been thriving under recent legislative legalization across the United States. However, instead of merely supplying tools and equipment to the hemp industry, Sugarmade boldly pledged to invest $1 million in capital to Hempistry, Inc., a privately held corporation out of Nevada that has begun planting an ultra-high cannabidiol (CBD) industrial hemp strain in the U.S. state of Kentucky (http://ibn.fm/IXnAM). The hemp industry is predicted to see increased growth in the coming year, and, thanks to insightful planning and smart decision-making, Sugarmade should as well.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Sugarmade.com

• Advanced financial and communications are offered by Cannagram Services to the cannabis industry; the platform is expected to position GRYN for vertical expansion and increased exposure
• Cannagram Services is one of three brands acquired in the Canna Brands Portfolio; others are Myijuana, a sales generating portal, and CoursePro Academy, an educational destination
• Long term, GRYN plans to expand its IP portfolio of brands first domestically, then globally, as a suite of products that will establish the company as a leader in the premium grade cannabis market

Green Hygienics Holdings Inc. (OTC: GRYN) eyes its rebranded Cannagram Services as a vital flagship platform for its recent trio of acquisitions, creating a catalyst for strategic growth in vertical markets. The purchase of the Canna Brands Portfolio advances its own business model and enables the company to position its brands in vertical markets (http://ibn.fm/sol8d).

Cannagram Services, CoursePro Academy and Myijuana together advance GRYN’s strategy of expanding its product sales and exposure in the full-scope premium cannabis industry, targeting the top-end medical and adult-use recreational markets. Science-driven cannabis growing methods are linked to its proprietary systems, algorithms, software and customized hardware. In a commercial environment, GRYN uses hybrid-aeroponics cultivation to produce pharmaceutical grade cannabis at a high yield and low cost.

Cannagram Services is able to concurrently offer the industry advanced communications and financial services while also extending a brand awareness platform for GRYN. It will also offer cross-portfolio resources, the company said.

CoursePro Academy creates an educational destination for the cannabis industry and provides another way for GRYN to introduce its own technologies and brands. The company sees it as an important asset.

Myijuana can create consumer sales and generate product revenue while offering a mix of content, including e-commerce, reviews and news, in a portal format. Its online Myijuana Dispensary Directory drives revenue through advertising, premium listings and reviews.

Together, these three core strategic acquisitions form an important platform that is expected to build “substantial revenues” for the company, according to Matthew Dole, SVP of business development at GRYN (http://ibn.fm/31eAH). He added that the company’s expanded IP platform, plus its own existing line of brands, will be used to advance its business model.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.GreenHygienicsHoldings.com

• The company’s proprietary payment system is called ‘Green’
• Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions offers payment and management solutions for medical and recreational dispensaries and businesses
• It offers commercial operators an option that promotes security in going cashless

Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions (OTC: REFG) serves the legal cannabis industry with a first-class end-to-end payment processing solution. This solution is FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) compliant. Its proprietary payment system is called ‘Green’, and the company specifically customized this platform’s technology to be geared toward the cannabis industry. Established in 2013, Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions is based in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The company provides payment and management solutions that are integrable for medical and recreational dispensaries and businesses (http://ibn.fm/Wd6rI). Essentially, as a first-tier merchant processing cannabis industry pioneer, Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions offers one of the first and only wide-ranging card processing operations of its type. This is primarily to serve the state-sanctioned medical marijuana industry. Its state-of-the-art system tracks sales and tax collection and does away with the requirement to deal in cash-only transactions.

Cannabis Dispensary noted in its April 2018 article that legitimate, fully transparent payment choices outside of traditional cash-only options are becoming available for dispensary customers (http://ibn.fm/axZC8). Furthermore, Forbes noted that hardworking marijuana business commercial operators are struggling to find banks that will work with them. This forces these businesses to conduct most business with cash (http://ibn.fm/uJ72l).

Therefore, Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions provides commercial operators with an option that also promotes security in going cashless. The company’s belief is that its ability to permit a licensed provider to apply for a bank account online is a significant business benefit. This is because the majority of providers are having their bank accounts shut down.

Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions is offering a quality resolution to medical and recreational marijuana businesses to address this issue. It now allows online signup of merchant clients on its website. The company also provides bank accounts online. This helps cannabis providers deal with the problem of limited or no bank support resulting from federal regulations. Moreover, most existing point-of-sale systems can be setup with the company’s gateway.

As a link between a bank and a dispensary, its payment solution card allows patients and customers to link checking accounts from any U.S. bank to their ‘Green’ accounts. The card is unique for purchasing cannabis-related products from state-sanctioned merchants. In addition, the company has teamed up with First Bitcoin Capital Corporation to enable cryptocurrency payments.

Regarding its complete payment and management solutions, Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions enables legal dispensaries and related business to employ the system to pay employees, owners and bills via electronic funds. The system also allows businesses to manage client and product information through one complete platform. Also, depending on a client’s volume, the company offers secured/armored pick-ups. This provides added security to cash handling.

Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions continues to innovate regarding solutions for the legal cannabis industry. Its focus is on addressing the banking concerns of medical and recreational marijuana businesses and providing transactional security for these entrepreneurs. The company is offering growth opportunities to its clients and shareholders alike.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Take.Green

• Improving the quality, taste and effectiveness of cannabis products with DehydraTECH
• Recently granted two new U.S. patents, with over 50 additional patent applications filed worldwide
• Applications span a wide range of products as the company out-licenses IP to third-party partners through a royalty model

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) is using its DehydraTECH to increase the quality, taste and effectiveness of cannabis products. Lexaria’s revolutionary drug delivery platform is disrupting the way cannabidiol enters the bloodstream. Rather than relying on the traditional methods of inhalation, which has harmful lasting impact on a person’s health, DehydraTECH allows for a safer, more efficient means of ingestion. This edible technology increases the bioavailability of the drug, amplifying intestinal absorption by 5-10 times. It allows for a more controlled dosage, masks the bitter medicinal taste without the use of sugar and reduces the amount of time it takes to experience the desired effect.

DehydraTECH is patented for CBD and all other non-psychoactive cannabinoids, as well as for THC and psychoactive cannabinoids. The implications of these patents reach beyond cannabinoids, naming a broad range of lipophilic bioactives and food/carrier particles. The company recently announced that it has been granted two new U.S. patents related to certain cannabinoid-infused beverage compositions (http://ibn.fm/UDcOJ). Currently, the company has over 50 patent applications filed worldwide.

Lexaria complements companies desiring to improve existing or create new products. The company can partner with the drug industry and enhance consumer products manufactured by partner companies. DehydraTECH is out-licensed to third-party partners through an affordable royalty model and is available in more than 40 countries where DehydraTECH is patented or patent-pending.

While Lexaria is currently focused on utilizing its technology in the medical and recreational cannabis, nicotine and NSAID industries, it has applications across a wide range of products. DehydraTECH has been used in processed foods, beverages, vitamins, pain relievers, smoking cessation and more.

John Docherty, president of Lexaria, shares an overview of how this technology and business model work in a short video found here: http://ibn.fm/L5qcV.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.LexariaBioscience.com

• Legalization of cannabis use changes for three more U.S. states
• A critical review of cannabis set to hit the international stage this month
• 25 years of experience behind the production of a consistent high yield in a controlled, environmentally friendly, organic and pest-free environment

Following the U.S. 2018 mid-term votes, 33 states now have laws legalizing cannabis products, with 10 states now having legalized recreational marijuana.  NPR reported that voters have relaxed marijuana laws in Michigan, Utah and Missouri, passing amendments that will hopefully inspire Congress to align state and federal marijuana laws (http://ibn.fm/zOrMe).

Earlier this year, the United Nations announced that it will conduct a critical review of cannabis, expected to begin in November 2018. This review will determine whether cannabis should continue to be banned under international law. According to an article in Forbes, advocates are hopeful this will lead to a pro-reform conclusion (http://ibn.fm/kGqOo). The review has the potential to create an international shift that could further impact the legal status of medicinal and recreational cannabis in the U.S.

“The time has come for marijuana to be removed from the federal drug schedules,” Mason Tvert, a spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project, noted in a news release. “There is no longer any doubt that it has significant medical value, and the science is clear that it is less harmful than many legal medical products. While marijuana is not harmless – few, if any, products are – it poses less harm than alcohol to consumers and to society. The U.S. led the world into the quagmire of cannabis prohibition, so it should lead the world out of it by descheduling cannabis and implementing a more evidence-based policy.”

Green Hygienics Holdings Inc. (OTC: GRYN) has the experience to recognize where this market is headed. Companies that are not looking to the future in this sector are unlikely to succeed. Lasting and real value will be created by the companies that have a competitive edge, material assets and focus on branding themselves.

The company is a full-scope, premium cannabis cultivation company targeting the high-end medical and adult-use recreational market, and it is leading the way in the advancement of science-driven cannabis cultivation systems. The unique hybrid aeroponic cultivation methods provide premium grade cannabis products. Companies that are not growing this way are unlikely to be able to compete in this market in the near future.

The company is developing and licensing valuable IP. These assets will likely become tremendously valuable in the future as the market matures and cultivators seek out ways to remain competitive and create operational efficiencies.

The company believes strongly that strong branding will be necessary to succeed and has several initiatives underway to place its services and products ahead of the curve.

Green Hygienics utilizes the science of hygienics to create the highest quality cannabis products for medical and recreational use. The company creates a controlled organic and pest-free environment that consistently produces higher yields and superior product. Green Hygienics utilizes technology that improves energy efficiency, uses 90-95 percent less water and does not require pesticides or fungicides. With over 25 years of experience in agricultural science and innovation, the company holds the advantage in delivering a premium grade product at a significantly lower cost per gram than its competitors.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.GreenHygienicsHoldings.com

• MJ Biz Con is taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center on November 14-16, 2018
• DVLP has two booths, will launch new software division
• Plans to acquire rapidly growing cannabis dispensary POS advertising player

With Golden Developing Solutions, Inc. (OTC: DVLP), what happens in Vegas, very likely, won’t stay in Vegas. The company, based in Texas, is an emerging leader in the cannabidiol (CBD) products marketplace. It’s also developing software for the industry, and will be launching a new software division (www.GreenerGrows.com) in conjunction with its presence at MJ Biz Con. As such, it can be expected to capitalize on the knowledge and contacts garnered at the conference, which is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center on November 14-16, 2018. DVLP will have two booths: one each for its retail and software divisions. The conference, hosted by one of the industry’s premier publications, Marijuana Business Daily, will feature a raft of keynote speakers. Visitors will be hard pressed to attend the 72 sessions planned over four days. In addition to the three conference days, there was a Pre-Con on Tuesday, November 13.

Participants at MJ Biz Con are likely to be in a good mood. The bane of the industry, Jeff Sessions, is no longer Attorney-General. Morgan Fox, a spokesman for the National Cannabis Industry Association, has welcomed the news. He cautiously anticipates that “reefer madness” at the Department of Justice will subside. So, too, does Golden Developing Solutions, which has a lot of skin in the cannabis game.

The company markets and distributes CBD, hemp oil and health and lifestyle products. Through an ecommerce portal set up by wholly-owned subsidiary Pura Vida Vitamins (www.PuraVidaVitamins.com) and through wholesale and distribution channels, DVLP offers a broad range of high-quality, price-competitive products, including traditional vitamins, supplements and CBD-based tinctures, vapes and soft gels, as well as other products. The company also has a line of CBD pet supplements in the works.

The company has also announced its intention to acquire a rapidly growing cannabis dispensary POS advertising player, in a restricted stock and cash deal valued on a pre-acquisition basis at over $4 million (http://ibn.fm/maHDi). DVLP management believes that the cannabis landscape is shifting. It foresees “falling cannabis prices and massive growth in consumer and B2B services as mainstream public adoption accelerates in North America.”

Participation at MJ Biz Con will give DVLP added exposure. Sessions are set to include an institutional investor conference; the business of hemp forum; a science symposium; a marijuana business crash course; the minority lunch; an investors’ lunch; and a women’s networking reception. Its organizers have a number of industry influencers hosting sessions. On day one, Chris Walsh, founding editor and vice president of Marijuana Business Daily, will start things off. His presentation will be on the “State of the Industry: Developments, Data & Trend.” Shaleen Title, who heads the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, is also billed as a speaker on day one.

Of special interest to DVLP are the sessions dealing with retail issues. On day two, three such presentations are planned. First, there will be “Growth Hack: Using Your Dispensary’s Data to Drive Profitability” followed by “Vision and Values: Using Culture to Develop Budtenders as Brand Drivers & Retain Talent” and finally “Make it Work: Strategies for Designing a Top-Notch Dispensary.”

DVLP recently acquired Layer Six Media, LLC, which trades under the name ‘Where’s Weed’ (www.WheresWeed.com). Where’s Weed is a rapidly growing community-based online resource for cannabis consumers with a host of user-friendly services, including a sophisticated mobile app. Presently, it enjoys three million page views per month. The portal provides a directory of cannabis establishments in 49 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, allowing consumers to conduct searches on dispensaries and cannabis retailers. The mobile app, available on both the iOS and Android platforms, has, to date, been downloaded over 80,000 times.

For more information, visit the company’s websites at www.PuraVidaVitamins.com and www.WheresWeed.com

• Creating products and solutions for legal retail and commercial cannabis growers
• Customers include retail stores, distributors, ecommerce and commercial growers
• S. legal cannabis market projected to reach $11 billion in consumer spending in 2018 and more than $23 billion by 2022, with potential to generate more than 467,000 full-time equivalent jobs in 2022.
• Focused approach on bringing innovative and must-have cannabis products and services to the market.

Generation Alpha, Inc. (OTCQB: GNAL) was established in 2010 as a vertically integrated technology innovator, developer, manufacturer and distributor focused on bringing products and solutions to both commercial and individual growers in the United States. Originally named Solis Tek Inc., the company changed its name to Generation Alpha in September 2018 and announced an increased focus on providing innovative and must-have cannabis products and services to a growing industry.

“Generation Alpha for us means ‘new beginning’” said Generation Alpha CEO Alan Lien, when the name change was announced. “It is the new wave of how people and brands connect. We are excited with the transformation of our business strategy, our progress at our Arizona facility and the additional growth opportunities our team has identified elsewhere in the cannabis industry. While we are pleased with our innovation and progress in our Solis Tek lighting and Zelda Horticulture divisions, we believe Generation Alpha represents our philosophy of bringing the best cannabis products and services to the market. We are confident that this shift in our business strategy will create long-term shareholder value through diversified segments in the legalized cannabis industry.”

The name change reflects the company’s strategy to leverage business opportunities in different legalized cannabis spaces, including cultivation, processing and retail facilities. As part of that focus, Generation Alpha acts as the holding entity for a collection of companies that bring products and solutions to legal retail and commercial cannabis growers while utilizing its expertise to offer safe, quality and consistent products through its cultivation, processing, and retail facilities as well as branded products in both the medical and recreational markets. Along with its strong focus on the burgeoning cannabis market, Generational Alpha remains committed to developing and providing innovative products and services in both Solis Tek Digital Lighting, its lighting division, and Zelda Horticulture, its agricultural products division.

As part of a key piece of its cannabis focus, Generation Alpha acquired a cannabis cultivation and processing facility in Phoenix, Arizona, which is scheduled to begin operation in 2019. Currently in the design and development stage, the 70,000-square-foot facility will be one of the most technologically advanced cultivation and processing facilities in Arizona, which is a hot bed of cannabis cultivation in North America. Generation Alpha management is confident about the growth and profitability this facility provides as an essential component of its forward-thinking cannabis strategy.

Additional components of this strategy include the company’s GrowPro Solutions, Inc., a nationwide cannabis cultivator and processor and a variety of Generation Alpha brands, which include the innovation, design and selling of cannabis products such as flower, oils and accessories in the legal medical and recreational markets.

The company’s Zelda Horticulture division offers commercial-grade rolling tables, greenhouses, PH stabilizer and nutrient products, and other agricultural products for cultivators around the world. Zelda’s custom-design cultivation options means its clients can count on increased agricultural productivity and efficiency.

Generation Alpha’s Solis Tek Digital Lighting division offers an extensive line of lighting equipment and accessories, including digital ballasts, reflectors, complete lighting systems, single- and double-ended digital lamps, controllers and other accessories. Each product is designed to help retail and commercial growers maximize quality and achieve higher yields and maximize quality.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.GenAlphaInc.com

• Pacific Software promoting its B2B ecommerce platform in China
• Food supply chain tracked using IBM Hyperledger Blockchain BaaS infrastructure
• Platform will link supply chains to “internet of things”

Whether it’s in the FX market, in precious metals or in foreign trade, fighting market forces is never a good idea, an admonition recently accentuated by a column in the Financial Times (http://ibn.fm/P4vhg). Despite the imposition of tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports into the U.S., those imports “rose 13.2 per cent in October (2018) from a year earlier.” Since 2013, China has been the world’s largest trading (imports plus exports) nation. The likelihood is that it will continue in that position for some time to come – a development that Pacific Software, Inc. (OTC: PFSF) is set to capitalize on. The company sported its Latin American connections at the recently concluded Autumn Canton Fair, where it demonstrated its blockchain ecommerce platform to Chinese importers and investors.

The Canton Fair, which ran from October 15 to November 4 this year, is China’s largest trade fair. The Fair presents an opportunity for the 20,000 or so vendors located in and around Guangzhou to display their wares to the 200,000 buyers, investors and other visitors in attendance. On October 31, 2018, Pacific Software’s show-and-tell took center stage, when the company hosted the Fair’s “Latin American Night” as a co-sponsor (http://ibn.fm/Z4Ab7). The event, made possible by soliciting Brazilian companies, local governments and trade associations for sponsorships, allowed the company to demonstrate its B2B e-commerce blockchain platform in an exotic setting. Presentations took place against a backdrop of cuisine and cultural events.

Development of Pacific Software’s multi-lingual ecommerce B2B and B2C trade platform kicked off in August 2018, after Pacific signed a definitive agreement with Cobalt 47 Technologies Ltd. (http://ibn.fm/wMFjD). Cobalt is a spin-off of KBQuest Group, a leading Chinese Microsoft distributor that was named “Microsoft SQL Partner of the Year 2017.” The platform is meant to ease trade between exporters in Brazil and importers in China. However, its design as an overlay to existing international distribution channels means that it could have much wider application. The technology, which will integrate blockchain components, including Pacific’s Agri-Blockchain, is slated for release by year-end.

Development of the PFSF platform will be undertaken using IBM’s Hyperledger Blockchain “Backend as a Service” (BaaS) infrastructure The IBM BaaS platform has the capability to record, store and track a range of digital product information, including farm origination details, batch numbers, factory and processing data, expiration dates, storage temperatures and shipping details.

Pacific Software is touting the benefits of its blockchain trade platform in smoothing the passage of Brazil’s substantial beef exports to China (mostly Hong Kong), presently running at a rate of about $5 billion per annum. The platform will improve transparency and trust with regard to origin, product quality and product safety and allow food contamination to be more easily detected by tracing the exact source. This will reduce costs tremendously. Under present systems, large quantities of both good food and bad are recalled and destroyed, because it is difficult to pinpoint the precise origin of an outbreak of Escherichia coli (E. coli), Salmonella enteritidis or some other contaminant. In addition, it could save lives. Every year, around 420,000 people die due to food contaminated by bacteria, chemicals, viruses, parasites and toxins.

Pacific’s B2B blockchain platform will also incorporate the capability to accept data from a variety of devices connected to the internet, such as barcode and RFID readers. Its ability to link to the “Internet of Things” will increase reliability and response time, making supply chains a great deal safer.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.PacificSoftwareInc.com

• Advance of cannabis legalization efforts in Canada and the United States bode well for cannabis industry
• Cannabis Strategic Ventures focused on incubating enterprising new talent and, now, cultivating cannabis product
• Cannabis industry expected to see $32 billion in annual trade within next five years

Canada’s completion of its efforts to legalize cannabis for a full range of uses last month, coinciding with a few U.S. state votes on potential uses of cannabis this month, highlights the advancing popularity of adopting the plant for widespread commercialization, and Cannabis Strategic Ventures, Inc. (OTC: NUGS) is helping to foster serious businesses that want to be a part of this emerging, powerful market.

Despite marijuana’s long cultural association with dopey behavior and decreased intelligence, the cannabis plant has transformed its image in recent years to one of a calming product similar to beer that can be consumed socially, even by progressive and upscale crowds. This is nowhere more apparent than in Canada, for which October marked a line of demarcation as a variety of adult recreational uses of the drug became legal on a national scale (http://ibn.fm/yzrdd).

The United States’ mid-term elections provided the potential for an increasing number of recreational-use states, as well as growth in the somewhat less controversial medicinal and wellness use arena. Nine states and Washington, D.C. currently allow recreational marijuana use despite ongoing federal prohibition, and the vote in Michigan and North Dakota on its acceptance created the potential for legal recreational use among a quarter of the U.S. population (http://ibn.fm/Lbgh2). Meanwhile, two other states’ votes on medicinal uses of marijuana and its non-druggy hemp sibling created the potential for that use case to become legal in more than half of U.S. states.

Cannabis industry incubator Cannabis Strategic Ventures has taken the measure of the plant’s growing potential and is building a worldwide portfolio of companies in the startup and growth stages that can benefit from Cannabis Strategic Ventures’ resources and expertise while allowing investors a place to jump into the emerging market.

In late October, the company announced that it is preparing to add to its product line by entering the cannabis cultivation arena (http://ibn.fm/UNgpm) through acquisitions, beginning in California.

“Currently, the Cannabis Strategic Ventures team is targeting several locations in excess of 200,000+ square feet that have existing cultivation infrastructures in place, which will allow us to move into cultivation very quickly,” company CEO Simon Yu stated in a news release about the plans.

The strategy not only provides Cannabis Strategic Ventures a potential source for its subsidiaries’ products; it also allows the company the flexibility it needs to continue acquiring more brands.

All of this posits the company’s increasing fortunes with investors and business partners as it continues to finalize its application for recognition under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to become a fully reporting participant on a national OTC exchange (http://ibn.fm/D25iE).

According to a joint 2018 executive summary authored by Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics, the demand for legal cannabis is expected to produce revenues of about $32 billion in less than five years, according to a Cannabis Strategic Ventures news release.

“Growth is on the horizon for the cannabis industry as recreational and medical markets continue to expand, and legalization continues to spread across the country,” Yu stated in a news release. “The Cannabis Strategic Ventures team is confident that moving into cannabis cultivation will allow us to significantly expand our revenue base and provide a strong path for continued financial growth.”

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.CannabisStrategic.com