Allied Corp Secures US Footprint in Preparation for US Federal Legalization of Cannabis With Signing of Land Lease, Purchase of US License and Master Service Agreement
KELOWNA, British Columbia, March 31, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Allied Corp. (“Allied” or the “Company”) (OTCQB: ALID) is an international medical company focused on creating and providing health solutions to address today’s medical mental health issues. This press releases comes as a follow up to the February 17th 2021 press release announcing the letter of intent (LOI) to sign a land lease and purchase of a US-registered cultivation license.
Allied’s wholly owned subsidiary Tactical Relief, LLC has signed a 25-year land lease in the Las Vegas area. This land has ample space to install Allied’s building and further space for future expansion. Allied has completed the construction of an approximate $3.5 million, 9,000 square foot, GMP-complaint facility that is ready to be deployed from the Las Vegas construction factory to this land location. The building has ample space for cannabis cultivation and research as we ll as large scale product packaging and fulfillment (the “US-Based Research and Product Fulfillment Center” discussed below). This building will be deployed to the location in the Las Vegas area and is ready for production.
In addition to this, Allied’s wholly owned subsidiary, Allied US Products LLC, a Nevada limited liability company has entered into an asset purchase agreement for the purchase of a Nevada State US-based cannabis license. As Nevada is not issuing any new licenses this asset is a key piece of Allied’s business plan and International Vertically Integrated Supply Chain (discussed below).
Lastly, Allied US Products LLC, has signed a master services agreement with a Nevada registered company that has the required licenses to operate the facility and will manage all activities that involve touching the plant. This includes all activities and actions needed to operate and manage the facility and equipment, as well as, perform all cannabis cultivation, production, sales and distribution activities. Allied Corp has sought expert legal opinion regarding corporate structuring in order to structure these agreements such that Allied Corp, as a publicly traded company, will not directly engage in any activities that involve touching the plant.
About the Allied US-Based Research and Product Fulfillment Center:
Allied has spent that last 18 months designing, constructing and fine-tuning the Allied building for deployment to the production location. This building is currently in Las Vegas as are the land and licenses that the Company has leased and purchased. The building has a purposeful design to cultivate specific genetics in the cultivation area of the building. The remainder of the building is dedicated to storing imported Colombian produced medical products for fulfillment into the United States. Once the retail-ready medical products are created out of the Colombia production output, they will be intended to be sold into the US medical marketplace for consumption. This is a 2.5-year fulfillment of a vision to develop an international supply chain strategy that many other agricultural commodities are following. Coffee, exotic fruit and many other agricultural products are produced in Colombia and brought into the US for processing before being released to retail. This is Allied’s International Vertically Integrated Supply Chain.
About Allied’s International Vertically Integrated Supply Chain.
In parallel with the building getting built over the past 18 months, Allied has spent the last 16 months getting the approval to commercialize their products out of Colombia. All of this work has resulted in a purposeful approach to Allied’s defined supply chain. With 12 hours of dark and 12 hours of sunshine cycles all year round, one season with 25 degrees Celsius and 60-80% humidity, the environmental conditions at the Allied Colombian Production Center are ideally situated for large- scale commercial low-cost high-quality production. Allied has been able to get the cost of production down to $0.05-0.10 cents per gram.
Allied’s high quality cannabis will be produced in Colombia and transformed into extracted material that is permitted for export from Colombia. Allied intends to then import into the United States and other international markets. With respect to the United States, Allied intends to import into many states and, in particular, its own Nevada Research and Product Fulfillment Center in order to further process the Colombian medical products into high-quality, high-margin retail-ready medical products for sale into the United States market. This represents Allied’s International Vertically Integrated Supply Chain.
“This purchase and land lease signifies the beginning of Allied’s presence in the US as a strong multi-state operational approach to the US medical cannabis marketplace. We are confident that as legislation continues to move closer to US National Legalization, we will be ready. With our large scale production footprint and commercial export licenses in Colombia producing low-cost, high-quality product, along with this Research and Product Fulfillment Center now located in one of the busiest tourism cities within the United States, we are set for the national volume demand that is coming. Many agricultural commodities consumed in the US are not grown in the US but rather South America due to all of the production and cost advantages. It is just good logic to believe that the same will be the case for cannabis,” says Calum Hughes, CEO of Allied.
Moving towards US legalization – Allied is Ready.
H.R. 1595, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019, the S. 1689, the Marijuana Justice Act and The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2020 (H.R. 3884) have all been presented to the US House. These, among additional outcomes, will remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act when passed. All of these are discussed briefly below. (SOURCE:https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1689).
The SAFE Banking Act was passed in the US House in 2019 (SOURCE: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1595 )
Currently, due to the lack of federal legalization, cannabis businesses face hurdles in gaining access to financial services from banks, even in states where marijuana use is legalized. By extension, such businesses are often forced to primarily rely on cash. The SAFE Banking Act, which passed in the House in 2019, proposes to “increase public safety by ensuring access to financial services to cannabis-related legitimate businesses and service providers and reducing the amount of cash at such businesses,” and would allow financial institutions like banks and insurers to provide financial services to cannabis-related legitimate businesses without facing penalties. The SAFE Banking Act also provides protections for ancillary businesses, stating that proceeds from transactions involving cannabis-related legitimate businesses are not unlawful on the basis of being cannabis-related.
The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2020 (H.R. 3884) was passed in the US House December 2020 (SOURCE: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3884)
The MORE Act proposes the removal of marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act. Further, it proposes eliminating criminal penalties for people who manufacture, distribute or possess marijuana. The MORE Act, notably, also provides for social justice measures to ameliorate the harm done to communities from past drug enforcement related to marijuana. In particular, the MORE Act directs the establishment and funding of a grant program, the “Community Reinvestment Grant Program,” to provide eligible entities with funds to administer services for individuals adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, including job training, legal aid, reentry services, and health education programs. The MORE Act passed in the House in December 2020.
The Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES Act) (SOURCE: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2093/all-info)
In addition to the SAFE and MORE acts, the STATES Act (H.R. 2093), which was proposed on June 7, 2018, is another notable piece of legislation that may come to fruition. The STATES Act proposes, among other things, amending the Controlled Substances Act to exclude persons in compliance with state laws related to marijuana, thereby allowing states to have more power to determine its own legal approach to marijuana regulation.
H.R. 365 and H.R. 430
Furthermore, there have also already been other new pieces of cannabis-related legislation introduced in 2021. For example, H.R. 365, which would reschedule marijuana into schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act rather than schedule I, which is a highly restricted classification based on the belief that marijuana has no medical use and a high potential for abuse. H.R. 430 would prevent denial of veteran benefits by veterans who obtain medical marijuana under approved marijuana programs.
The eventual US legalization will open up enormous business opportunities for legal marijuana nationwide, and further afield.
About Allied Corp. – https://allied.health/
Allied Corp. is an international heath and technology company with a mission to address today’s medical issues by researching, creating and producing targeted health solutions. Allied Corp. uses an evidence-informed scientific approach to make this mission possible, through cutting-edge pharmaceutical research and development, innovative plant- and mushroom-based production and unique development of therapeutic products.
Investor Relations:
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Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws in Canada or “forward-looking statements” made pursuant to the “safe harbour” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, “forward-looking information”). Forward-looking information may relate to the Company’s future outlook and anticipated events, plans or results, and may include information regarding the Company’s objectives, goals, strategies, future revenue or performance and capital expenditures, and other information that is not historical information. Forward-looking information can often be identified by the use of terminology such as “believe,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “expect,” “pending,” “in process,” “intend,” “estimate,” “project,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “can,” the negatives thereof, variations thereon and similar expressions. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is based on the Company’s opinions, estimates and assumptions in light of management’s experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that management currently believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. Forward looking statements in this press release include the following: that Allied is leveraging the conditions in its Colombia grow operation and future Kelowna location to support its Research and Development efforts; that Allied is making important strides forward to position itself as a leader in the medical cannabis space, that Allied intends to make a series of proposed trademark and other intellectual property protection filings, as part of the Company’s Intellectual Property and Pharma Development (IP&PD) Strategy, statements respecting the joint development, manufacturing, and introduction of TACTICAL RELIEF™ branded products, and the use of proceeds from the offering of convertible notes.
There can be no assurance that the underlying opinions, estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information in this release include: the Company’s exposure to legal and regulatory risk; the effect of the legalization of adult-use cannabis in Canada and Colombia on the medical cannabis industry is unknown and may significantly and negatively affect the Company’s medical cannabis business; that the medical benefits, viability, safety, efficacy, dosing and social acceptance of cannabis are not as currently expected; that adverse changes or developments affecting the Company’s main or planned facilities may have an adverse effect on the Company; that the medical cannabis industry and market may not continue to exist or develop as anticipated or the Company may not be able to succeed in this market; risks related to completion of the greenhouse construction in Colombia, risks related to market competition; risks related to the proposed adult-use cannabis industry and market in Canada and Colombia including the Company’s ability to enter into or compete in such markets; that the Company has a limited operating history and a history of net losses and that it may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future; risks related to the Company’s current or proposed international operations; risks related to future third party strategic alliances or the expansion of currently existing relationships with third parties; that the Company may not be able to successfully identify and execute future acquisitions or dispositions or successfully manage the impacts of such transactions on its operations; risks inherent to the operation of an agricultural business; that the Company may be unable to attract, develop and retain key personnel; risks resulting from significant interruptions to the Company’s access to certain key inputs such as raw materials, electricity, water and other utilities; that the Company may be unable to transport its cannabis products to patients in a safe and efficient manner; risks related to recalls of the Company’s cannabis products or product liability or regulatory claims or actions involving the Company’s cannabis products; risks related to the Company’s reliance on pharmaceutical distributors; that the Company, or the cannabis industry more generally, may receive unfavourable publicity or become subject to negative consumer or investor perception; that certain events or developments in the cannabis industry more generally may impact the Company’s reputation or its relationships with customers or suppliers; that the Company may not be able to obtain adequate insurance coverage in respect of the risks that it faces, that the premiums for such insurance may not continue to be commercially justifiable or that there may be coverage limitations and other exclusions which may result in such insurance not being sufficient; that the Company may become subject to liability arising from fraudulent or illegal activity by its employees, contractors, consultants and others; that the Company may experience breaches of security at its facilities or losses as a result of the theft of its products; risks related to the Company’s information technology systems; that the Company may be unable to sustain its revenue growth and development; that the Company may be unable to expand its operations quickly enough to meet demand or manage its operations beyond their current scale; that the Company may be unable to secure adequate or reliable sources of necessary funding; risks related to, or associated with, the Company’s exposure to reporting requirements; risks related to conflicts of interest; risks related to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; risks related to the Company’s potential exposure to greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities; risks related to the protection and enforcement of the Company’s intellectual property rights, or the intellectual property that it licenses from others; that the Company may become subject to allegations that it or its licensors are in violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties; that the Company may not realize the full benefit of the clinical trials or studies that it participates in; that the Company may not realize the full benefit of its licenses if the licensed material has less market appeal than expected and the licenses may not be profitable; as well as any other risks that may be further described in and the risk factors discussed in the Company’s continuous disclosure including its Management’s Discussion and Analysis sections in its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Current Reports on Form 8-K filed under the Company’s profile at www.sec.gov.
Although management has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information in this presentation, there may be other risk factors not presently known to the Company or that the Company presently believes are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking information in this presentation. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers and viewers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date made. The forward-looking information contained in this release represents the Company’s expectations as of the date of this release or the date indicated, regardless of the time of delivery of the presentation. The Company disclaims any intention, obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws.
