Co-founder and chief growth officer Martin Lane reflects on a year in which the industry faced its fair share of ups and downs and the future direction of travel became less clear for some.
In previous years, sitting down to write the annual birthday column has been straightforward — a central theme presents itself almost immediately, and the rest follows naturally.
Year one: keeping the lights on
Year two: predicting a bright future
Year three: tantrums and tiaras
Year four: what's the point?
This year, though, I'm at a loss.
That opening paragraph was my fifth attempt, for what it's worth, and after all of them I'm still no closer to knowing what to say across the next 700 words or so.
I briefly considered turning to ChatGPT for inspiration, but I wouldn't even know what to ask it. Besides, our editor Steve Jones would kill me if I used artificial intelligence to replace a task usually performed by a grizzled old hack.
So where does this uncertainty come from? Honestly, I can't work out whether we're heading toward abundance or scarcity.
Last month I attended the Cannabis Europa conference in London and took part in an interactive session hosted by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and the New Zealand Medicinal Cannabis Council. The conversation centred on Australia and New Zealand being among the world's fastest-growing cannabis markets.
The room was full of people eager to find out how they could move into the region and take a share of that growth.
From the inside, however, it rarely feels that way.
Without wanting to talk the industry down, the past 12 months have seen us spend a great deal of time covering company collapses, regulatory crackdowns, and media coverage of alleged misconduct by operators who appear to prioritise profit over patient welfare.
Yet set that against Phytoca's fortunes — acquired by Chinese investor Y Cannabis Holdings in a deal worth up to A$62 million — alongside rising patient numbers, encouraging research findings, and European giant Curaleaf entering the Australian market, and a very different picture emerges.
There are genuine reasons for optimism, yet there have been weeks where positive stories have been hard to come by amid the gloom.
For a media company whose business depends on the financial health of this sector, that reality hits close to home.
Coverage of company failures may drive newsletter open rates in the short term. Over time, though, every firm that closes represents one fewer potential supporter of a sustainable publishing operation.
With Labor's federal election win this year, any meaningful adult-use reform in Australia looks unlikely before at least the next parliament. The same applies in New Zealand following its shift to the right in 2023.
Through all this uncertainty, one thing seems clear: the performance of the medical cannabis market will shape the future of legal cannabis on both sides of the Tasman. Supporting that market is in everyone's commercial interest.
“We love writing about the sector – it’s fascinating, inspiring, sometimes infuriating, but never dull.”
That means engaging with governments and regulators, funding research, amplifying patient stories, and pushing back against misinformation in the mainstream press.
It also means keeping our own house in order so we don't hand medical bodies, politicians, and hostile media outlets an easy target.
As a news service, our primary obligation is to our readers, and we'll keep delivering the information you need to grow your business and advance your career — even when those stories are uncomfortable.
At the same time, we're aware of the role we play in shaping how the industry is perceived by those outside it, so please send us your good news when you have it.
We genuinely love covering this sector. It's fascinating, inspiring, occasionally maddening, and never boring. More than that, the people working in it are overwhelmingly doing so for the right reasons.
Being able to support that work continues to be a privilege.
That said, we need your support in return. If you haven't yet done so, please sign up for a Premium membership, which gives you unlimited access to all stories in our weekly newsletter and archive, breaking news alerts, market intelligence reports, and sector analysis.
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Apologies for ending on a sales pitch — but when the road ahead looks uncertain, one thing remains constant: we all need each other more than we did before.
