Tallahassee’s Kim Rivers, the CEO of North Florida based Trulieve, appeared on CNBC’s “Mad Money” with Jim Cramer on Monday, October 8th.
Rivers discussed how Florida’s largest fully licensed medical marijuana company is faring amid the cannabis craze and reported that Trulieve is “seeing a huge transition” from opioids to medical cannabis.
Rivers’ told Cramer that Florida patients with serious conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, are increasingly opting for medical cannabis over opioids.
“We’re seeing a huge transition,” Rivers said. “That’s actually one of our initiatives in front of the [Florida state] legislature this upcoming session, to introduce policies to say instead of only having opioids as an alternative, why not medical cannabis?”
CNBC’s Elizabeth Gurdus reported that with over 80,000 patients and 17 retail locations in Florida, Trulieve offers 90 cannabis-based products that help treat a range of health problems, including seizure conditions, cancer and AIDS. A bulk of Trulieve’s patients also suffer from PTSD, given Florida’s large veteran population.
Trulieve, which is vertically integrated and thus cultivates, manufactures and distributes its own products, makes products with varying levels of both THC and CBD, marijuana’s main active compounds.
Rivers told Kramer that Trulieve is on the front lines of helping cannabis-based alternatives to opiates become more mainstream.
“There have been a number of recent studies that have come out that have shown that in states where medical cannabis programs are robust, the number of opioid prescriptions reduces dramatically,” the CEO said.
“We also know from just firsthand true stories, which we have on our website every Tuesday, that a number of our patients are transitioning from opioids to medical cannabis very effectively, and it’s a much safer and effective alternative,” she continued.
TR recently reported about Trulieve preparing to go public in Canada. Based on media reports, Schyan Exploration Inc. announced that it had entered into a non-binding letter agreement whereby the company and Trulieve have agreed to merge their respective businesses resulting in a reverse takeover of the company by Trulieve.
“There are some complications with being a cannabis company in the United States and having primary operations in the United States. So an RTO was the way that we needed to go,” she said, adding that “we’re very comfortable that that is a clean shell that we now own.”
“We are looking to go elsewhere,” Rivers told Cramer. “And we can’t go elsewhere now with our current license in Florida, so we would need to make acquisitions, which is one of the reasons and one of the main drivers that we decided to go public a couple weeks ago.”
See video of full interview here.
Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers Appears on CNBC’s “Mad Money” with Jim Cramer added by Steve Stewart on
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Is there any concern over watered down products or the fact that many were and are left out of this system while these companies are moving and selling out? It’s crazy to block horizontal integration at the patients expense while not even pushing for best practices! I use to shop here but I’m so disappointed with everything I’m learning about our state and dispensaries. We deserve your test results and transparency!
This cannabis (medical ??) is a potential mind field for our populace. Suddenly a huge number of people are PTSD and require this crap. Read up on what has happened in states where this stuff is freely dispensed………….more serious auto accidents …..increase in crime of ALL kinds (And ignore the made up statistics of those supporting AND profiting from sales of the stuff ), so if you are stupid enough to fall for their sales pitch, then reap the after math of destructive lives, welfare gone rampent, etc.,. A country of dope heads ( remember the opium dens of pre war China….miserable people totally relying on their daily “”FIX””. ……..Just say”n………….AMEN.
Kim Rivers is kinda cute; but I just wonder if she is gonna be un-indicted in the local FBI investigation. Got a feeling she’s dirty in that respect – call it a gambler’s hunch – if I could put $1000.00 on that “hunch” out in Vegas I would.
Jim Cramer is a local boy who’s done very well for himself. His Mad Money concept is popular and his financial blogs are widely read. He’s kinda creepy though and likely not a good person.
This Hurricane Michael recovery shows what any half-baked leader can do (Mayor Andrew) if he focuses on doing his job and leaving partisan politics aside. For this recovery Mayor Andrew was on a political short leash and was forced into doing the right thing if he was to have any chance of being elected Governor.
Yes this one has been run efficiently; however Andrew has already shown “the citizens be dammed” (with Hurricane Hermine) if he feels he can score a political gain.
Please Florida do not elect this political hack as Governor based on this Hurricane Michael recovery.
God only knows how Andrew will screw the public as Governor in Florida if his evil overlord George Soros orders it during the next disaster.
Oh BTW there’s a staged photo of Mayor Andrew circulating on Face Book where Andy was drenched with a bottle of water AKA fake sweat supposedly picking up parts of a downed Hurricane Michael tree in the Tallahassee Indian Head neighborhood.
It’s fake because Andrew had to remove his mandatory hard-hat to show the fake sweat.
Anyway the local dim-witted Democrats are all fawning over the photo kinda like that weird and creepy Obama pants crease thingy. Dim Whits!!!
Did he ask her about the FBI investigation?
Fun fact: Long before becoming a hedgie and then a billionaire when TheStreet.com had its IPO, Cramer was a reporter at…The Tallahassee Democrat! One of, if not the last, story he covered in the late-70s was the Bundy murders at Chi Omega. Long ago, there was an 8×10 b/w headshot of him in their library. Full head of curly hair and a very wide tie – it was hilarious! But it got swindled or lost more than a decade ago – oh well.