Michigan getting lots of Attention for med weed
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - Jun 6, 2014) - Easton Pharmaceuticals Inc. -- (OTC: EAPH) -- announces it has received and is in late stage discussions with two investment proposals in the medical marijuana industry.
Easton Pharmaceuticals will be decided upon within the next week to 10 days which involves two proposals and investment opportunities in the medical marijuana industry. The first proposal stems from a signed LOI and discussions initiated with UMED Health and Wellness Centers located in the State of Michigan, current owners of an operating medical marijuana dispensary since January of this year. The discussions with UMED involve terms based around Easton Pharmaceuticals opening one or possibly more medical marijuana dispensary(s) in the State of Michigan with UMED being the manager of the operating business and facility. A counter proposal has been submitted to UMED where both companies would form a 50/50 joint partnership for new dispensaries with Easton paying the fees and expenses required to open the facilities and UMED finding the locations, design, launch the facilities, locate the product and patients for the dispensary. Discussions have also involved a direct investment into UMED for expansion of their existing business which after 6 months of operations with their own dispensary, revenues according to UMED are projected to conservatively reach $1 Million at the current pace with cumulative increases projected over the next few years. The new dispensaries in Michigan is thought of as an attractive opportunity to generate quick low overhead revenues for Easton due to costs that are deemed to be greatly reduced compared to the current costs required for its federal medical marijuana growers business in Canada as previously announced with MDRM Canada Group Inc. currently in its final inspection phase prior to receiving a Federal growers license for the entire country of Canada. The launch of dispensaries(s) in the state of Michigan does not presently require elaborate vaults or other expensive security systems as is required as per federal guidelines in Canada although dispensary's in Michigan are not legally allowed to grow their own product, but to only distribute medical marijuana to patients. Through consultations with advisors and other experts in the industry, with the ever improving sentiment to medical marijuana and to recreational use marijuana as is the case in the precedent setting, State of Colorado, eventually cross border or cross state importing and exporting of various strains of marijuana is believed to be approved. Easton Pharmaceuticals believes now would be the opportune time to get involved in the State of Michigan for Medical Marijuana before new rules are expected to come into effect resulting in more strict licensing requirements, security and other facets which would greatly increase the costs which as of the moment are a fraction compared to Canada's highly regulated, but extremely profitable industry or of that in other states such as Colorado and others.
In addition to the Michigan medical marijuana initiative, Easton has been presented with an opportunity to invest in a private company, soon to go public, to help fund a leading technology designed to ensure that cultivation, bottling, edible, extract manufacturers and dispensaries all maintain the highest food quality safety standards for antimicrobial and bacteria free facilities. In the wake of Colorado recently sending health inspectors to numerous facilities where large harvests were ordered destroyed and or recalled which was the same for large growers in Canada, this technology could save industry companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and brand damage. Colorado has announced new health standards and bacteria testing procedures will be coming into place by October. Other states will soon follow which is why an opportunity does exist and where Easton may conclude a deal next week.
A decision on both of the proposals and opportunities are expected to be made in the next week to 10 days and neither requires a large investment by Easton which would not impede or limit the closing of its recently announced MDRM Canada Group agreement where Easton has an exclusive option to purchase up to 49% in a private medical marijuana company who are in receipt of a letter to build from health Canada and are in the final build out stage of its facilities prior to a final inspection and before a national MMPR growers license is granted.
In other news, Easton Pharmaceuticals is placing serious consideration to moving forward with filing a form 10 or an S1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to become a reporting issuer and to graduate up to the OTCBB or the OTCQB exchange. The difference with being an SEC reporting company is that its financial statements would be audited by a US GAAP auditor and filed on the SEC's Edgar system. Currently, its financial statements are validated by an attorney and filed on the OTC Markets exchange (OTC: EAPH) which is considered close to the same level of transparency with financial statements filed with the SEC, being a reporting SEC filer would require 8K's and other filings to be submitted on a more timely basis for material transactions
