Why Invest in mCig, Inc. (MCIG)?
Dear Potential mCig, Inc. Investor,
Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, mCig, Inc. (MCIG) is a leading provider of advanced technologies and solutions to the global cannabis industry. mCig manufactures and markets best-selling portable and home vaporizers, extraction related equipment, CBD Rich Hemp Oil-derived products, and related nutraceuticals based on natural compounds found in Cannabis and Hemp plants. The company owns the mCig and Vapolution brands, and has a 47% stake in VitaCig (VTCQ), makers of the VitaStik, a disposable vitamin vaporizer.
The company has also recently introduced our Chill line of CBD Hemp Oil vape products, and an assortment of new flavors for our VitaCig line of vitamin-enriched tobacco replacement products.
We have also invested our R&D into exciting new products. One example is our patent-pending Ultrasonic technology for a revolutionary new type of pen vaporizers that delivers a cleaner delivery method. Another instance of where our lab work has paid off is our new, groundbreaking CBD-infused nutraceutical products soon to be released. And, we have many more products in various development and production cycles to come.
And, the company has recently launched construction and engineering, and software divisions, to round out our industry expertise and remain competitive in this rapidly expanding industry. While the scope and number of products we bring to market grows, so too is our distribution network. Our recent distribution agreement with Cafe’ Serendipity, an expanded sales force, new consumer facing web sites, and a new reseller program will all help to strengthen our retail and online presence and fuel our next phase of growth.
Armed with a more diversified portfolio of sleek products and services and an ever expanding distribution network, as well as a series of new ventures such as automated retail stores (vending machines) and full software and merchant processing packages for dispensaries, we look forward to a very bright future for mCig!
Technology Revolutionizes Tobacco Consumption
In late 2000 a Chinese pharmacist named Hon Lik came up with an idea to deliver nicotine (the active ingredient in tobacco) by combining a small lithium-ion battery and an atomizer that would vaporize a nicotine liquid. The result was revolutionary as nothing was being burned leading to a clean delivery of nicotine without the negative effects of tar, smoke, or second hand smoke. At first these devices were seen as novelty items from China. However, over the past three years Electronic Cigarettes (eCigs) have been gaining momentum and taking market share converting traditional smokers and leading to a renaissance by non-smokers. Electronic Cigarettes now account for as much as 1% of US Cigarette sales. Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) a $30 billion traditional tobacco company projects that industry revenue will double to $1 Billion this year and as much as $5 Billion within five years.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) analyst Bonnie Herzog predicts even faster growth, with sales topping $10 Billion by 2017. Most recently, Citigroup in a 60 page report called Electronic Cigarettes one of the “10 most disruptive innovations in the world” and projected that the industry would grow at 50% a year over the next 5 years. All this has led the traditional tobacco industry to take notice and even enter the space via merger and acquisition. The first of these acquisitions occurred on May 2012 when traditional tobacco company Lorillard (NYSE: LO) bought Blucigs for $135 million.
At mCig, Inc. we believe the eCig trend represents one of the most important technological conversions since humans switched from horses to automobiles or calculators to computers. The opportunity is so exciting due to the sheer volume of people that consume plant material in conventional format which as of 2012 amounts to over 1.2 billion.
The history of marijuana (AKA Cannabis) is quite different from tobacco. Tobacco was accepted by governments even in the face of scientific scrutiny and was only regulated once the evidence was irrefutable. Marijuana on the other hand has been heavily scrutinized, regulated, and classified as an illegal substance even though there has been virtually no scientific evidence of bodily harm. A study by UCSF Professor Dr. Leland Kim shows that tobacco smoking causes nearly 443,000 deaths in the US alone while marijuana causes zero. The history of marijuana is deeply embedded with that of American culture and other leading cultures of the world. US President Thomas Jefferson himself said “Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.” Unfortunately, since the time of the founding fathers millions of Americans have been arrested and even incarcerated for the possession of marijuana and tens of billions of tax dollars have been expended on regulating and enforcing the criminality of this herb.
The Decriminalization and Legalization of Marijuana
Following the global economic crisis of 2008 a renewed effort was made by the marijuana lobby for both decriminalization of the herb as well as legalization. This push was ultimately successful as the prospect of taxing marijuana like alcohol or tobacco represented an inflection point in the conversation for the merits of legalization. This culminated in marijuana being fully decriminalized and even legalized for adults 21 and up in the states of Colorado (Amendment 64) and Washington (Initiative 502).
Colorado and Washington represent only the start of this trend. On a Federal level, there have been important developments as well. Most recently US Attorney General Eric Holder in a speech to the House of Delegates indicated that he had mandated a review and modification of all Justice Department policies relating to the sentencing of non-violent drug offenders.
The map to the left illustrates how other states are considering decriminalization, legalization or both.These laws went into effect in December 2013 marking the first time in nearly 80 years that Americans were allowed to consume marijuana legally.
As a business opportunity marijuana legalization spawned a mini gold rush creating an entire industry from legal growing operations to secondary and tertiary businesses to support the conversion of this industry from illegal to legal. MMJ Business Daily has done a good job of analyzing the data and projects that the current size of the legal marijuana industry in the US (only Washington and Colorado) is about $1.5 Billion and will grow to $6.0 Billion by 2018.
Keep in mind these are only the revenues for Colorado and Washington, currently the only two states offering full legalization. MMJ projects that the size of the total US market if legalized would be $46 Billion. Globally, this market is even larger with the United Nations (in a report from 2005) stating there are nearly 150 million active marijuana smokers in the world expending over $150 billion a year.
At mCig, Inc. we believe this trend is in its infancy and that over the next decade marijuana will be fully decriminalized in most developed nations. As a business opportunity, we believe that this trend is similar to the one that occurred with alcohol after prohibition and that the ultimate market opportunity will be in excess of $100 billion a year.