Whilst not the key driver for the current move, anyone following more the ASX Cannabis mkt, may have picked up on this recent article and generated a little "watch" interest from the free PR. Someone just slipped into the T20.

https://www.businessnewsaus.com.au/articles/australia-s-top-20-cannabis-companies.html

1		Australia's top 20 cannabis companies 9 July 2020,Written by Matt Ogg and David Simmons Let's not beat around the bush. The last 12 months have been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride for cannabis investors, as oversupply and quality problems in North America sent shares in the industry plunging and dragged ASX-listed stocks down with them. In this list, last year's number one Elixinol is now in 13th position. Creso Pharma (ASX: CPH), which in mid-2019 was riding high on a 2 million takeover offer, abandoned that deal and has fallen off the list entirely. And it isn't as if Creso's board would have been wiser in retrospect to take the money and leave; the offer from PharmaCielo was scrip-based, and the TSX-listed company too has seen a downward turn in its fortunes. Creso's situation is emblematic of the industry at large. Despite the negative sentiment driven by global market fundamentals, it is actually progressing on numerous fronts; revenue rose seven-fold in the first quarter, it has signed distribution partnerships in three continents, and management is upbeat about promising legislative developments for cannabis in Israel. Similarly, Australia's top 20 cannabis companies have taken great strides towards building an industry at home and abroad. Prescription numbers are rising rapidly, new production facilities are in the works along with improved manufacturing capacity, new players like Canada's Cronos and Valens are on the scene, and market leaders are testing innovative technologies and business models. Yet if it weren't for the inclusion of new top dog Ecofibre, whose business focus may be hemp but its strength in CBD product sales and research make it a cannabis industry force to be reckoned with, the market capitalisation of this list would have dropped by billion year-over-year to around 0 million. Instead, the market capitalisation of Australia's top 20 cannabis companies stands at .58 billion, representing a slight drop on last year with Ecofibre accounting for almost half that value. The other two companies to fall off the list were hydroponics tech group Roto-Gro International (ASX: RGI) and CBD-based oral spray developer SUDA Pharmaceuticals (ASX: SUD). In their place are Little Green Pharma (ASX: LGP) which blazed onto the ASX with an IPO in February, and Avecho Biotech (ASX: AVE) which has teamed up with Tasmanian Alkaloids (TasAlk) to apply its drug delivery platform to medicinal cannabis. Others may well have been included had this list been published at a different time. Such is the volatility of the sector, which rather ironically targets anxiety disorders and stress for the large part. In terms of major recent developments in Australia, as of 31 January 2020 recreational cannabis has been legalised in the ACT with adults allowed to hold 50 grams of cannabis and cultivate two cannabis plants. But when the breakthrough was announced in September last year, many industry experts were sceptical about the benefits it would bring. Dr Sud Agarwal, who is the chief executive officer of leading unlisted medicinal cannabis company Cannvalate, said the new ACT law carried the risk of creating a "parallel grey market" whereby patients would choose home-grown, non-medical grade cannabis instead of the higher quality products espoused by the industry. Cannvalate is one of many thriving Australian medicinal cannabis outfits that don't appear in this list as they are not on the ASX. But the Melbourne-based group is involved in one of the most significant announcements for the Australian industry of late, partnering with Canada's Valens Groworks for its Australian market entry. It was reported in theSydney Morning Heraldlast month that Valens planned to spend million on Australia's largest medicinal cannabis facility in Melbourne's southeast. Meanwhile, the first company to receive Australian licences to research and grow medicinal cannabis - Cann Group (ASX: CAN) - could make a decision any day now on how to proceed with its 4 million production facility in Mildura. Another major event to look out for will be the referendum coming up later this year on the legalisation of cannabis in New Zealand, and ASX-listed companies including Cann Group and THC Global (ASX: THC) are trying to get in on the action with partnerships across the Tasman Sea. According to numbers from the Office of Drug Control (ODC), there are now 31 companies with Australian manufacturing licences for medicinal cannabis and a further 26 with import licences, although the ODC's list only includes those who consent to being published. Australia's top 20 cannabis companies 2019 Australia's top 20 cannabis companies 2018 In its 'Oceania Cannabis Report' second edition published in April,Prohibition Partnersestimated there were around 2.1 million cannabis users in Australia, and just over 18,500 medicinal cannabis patients as at 1 January this year. The report forecasts the value of Australia's cannabis market will jump from around US million currently to a whopping US.23 billion by 2024. "Oceania is fast emerging as a global contender in both the medical cannabis and adult-use space thanks to increasingly liberal attitudes in the region," Prohibition Partners group managing partner Stephen Murphy said in the report. "Australia in particular punches above its weight in relation to the number of publicly listed companies trading on the Australian stock exchange (ASX). With over 30 companies currently listed, this is considerably more than the number of publicly listed companies in all of the countries in Europe combined. "In the face of global upheaval, which the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic represents, the continued growth of companies such as Little Green Pharma and the opportunities for investors that such growth provides is a welcome good-news story in uncertain times." In last year's list we highlighted how Australia had become an unlikely hub for the booming global cannabis industry. There have certainly been setbacks from an investment standpoint since then, but the continued arrival of major global players and commitments made by home-grown cann-preneurs demonstrate how much promise this sector has if the legislative environment works in its favour.