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“You’ll see a lot of companies like Canopy Health starting to form, and they’re basically going to create medical cannabis 2.0,” Canopy Health Chief Executive Marc Wayne said in an interview. “There is a gold rush for cannabis intellectual property, and it’s accelerating.”

Canada’s relaxed regulations, mature marijuana industry and free-flowing capital offer such firms a unique opportunity to advance research without the legal and political risks that bog down cannabis firms in the United States and elsewhere.

While U.S. federal law continues to ban weed in all forms, Canada approved medical pot in 2001 and will legalize recreational use this year. Its government welcomes and even finances the research and clinical trials needed to fully legitimize medical cannabis.

There is a gold rush for cannabis intellectual property, and it's accelerating Marc Wayne, Canada Health CEO

Canada is also one of only two nations — along with the Netherlands — that currently exports marijuana, allowing firms here to take immediate advantage of recent medical pot legalizations in more than 20 countries. Research firm Brightfield Group last year forecast the global medical cannabis market would quadruple to US$31.4 billion by 2021.

Offerings in today’s Canada medical marijuana market differ little from those used recreationally — the smokable plant and, more recently, oil extracts. More than 70 companies have licenses from the federal drug regulator, Health Canada, to cultivate, produce and sell medical marijuana, with more than half those licenses granted in 2017 or 2018.