For years, the hashish business invited a sure sort of storytelling. The dominant narratives favored scale, spectacle, and capital. Growth itself usually handed for technique. In North America particularly, the sector’s early rise was framed by means of cultivation footprints, licensing races, and the promise of a market that appeared perpetually on the verge of going absolutely mainstream.
Claudia Della Mora has spent sufficient time inside that world to grasp each its attraction and its distortions. Educated in funding banking and formed by years of labor throughout M&A, regulated industries, and worldwide hashish growth, she constructed Black Legend Capital right into a automobile for advisory work, capital technique, and cross-border hashish offers. Extra not too long ago, by means of Inexperienced Legend Farm and her work in Italy, that perspective has moved nearer to operations and the sensible calls for of constructing contained in the market itself.
That distinction is more and more essential. Europe is growing alongside a markedly totally different path from the US. Its hashish market is being formed by doctor prescribing, pharmaceutical requirements, reimbursement programs, and the sluggish work of scientific integration.
Italy gives one of many clearest examples of each the chance and the friction. It has a authorized medical framework, a nationwide healthcare system, and established pathways for prescribing and meting out hashish. But entry stays uneven, provide stays constrained, and the system itself stays underbuilt relative to demand. For Della Mora, and for ventures similar to Inexperienced Legend Farm working inside that panorama, these tensions are exactly the place the true story lies.
Her view of the business is grounded within the easy premise that long-term worth will come from constructing programs that work. Which means dependable provide chains, skilled physicians, pharmacy-based distribution, scientific follow-up, and the information wanted to maintain legitimacy over time. It additionally means recognizing that hashish is growing inconsistently throughout jurisdictions, with regulation figuring out what every market can change into.
Within the dialog that follows, Della Mora displays on her motion from finance into operations, the structural promise of Italy, and why Europe’s future in hashish could also be slower, extra fragmented, and extra sturdy than many buyers first imagined.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Q&A with Claudia Della Mora
C&T At the moment: You started your profession in funding banking and M&A. What first drew you into the hashish sector, and what did your early years working in hashish finance reveal about how the business was evolving?
Claudia Della Mora: I began in funding banking and M&A extra broadly, together with my time at Financial institution of America Securities / Merrill Lynch, working throughout healthcare, shopper, and different regulated industries.
Hashish got here later, as legalization started to emerge globally within the early 2010s. After founding Black Legend Capital in 2012, I started advising hashish corporations and buyers internationally, throughout North America, Europe, and rising markets, and dealing carefully with operators and, in some circumstances, policymakers navigating new regulatory frameworks.
What drew me in was that hashish was a structural shift on the intersection of coverage, drugs, and capital markets.
Hashish is growing inconsistently throughout jurisdictions, with regulation figuring out what every market can change into.
In North America, capital markets drove fast growth, usually prioritizing scale, licenses, cultivation capability, and income development. In Europe and different worldwide markets, the trajectory was basically totally different. Hashish was being built-in into healthcare programs, which meant slower growth, however extra structured and sturdy foundations.
One other key realization was that hashish doesn’t behave like a conventional business. You may’t analyze it purely by means of monetary metrics. The actual variables are regulatory design, doctor adoption, affected person entry, and provide chain reliability.
That early publicity formed how I take into consideration the business in the present day. Hashish is about constructing programs that really work inside healthcare and regulatory environments.
C&T At the moment: After almost a decade advising corporations and buyers, you moved nearer to operations and growth. What motivated that shift from analyzing the business to serving to construct inside it?
CDM: After almost a decade advising corporations and buyers, I saved encountering the identical sample of wanting like a powerful alternative on paper, however restricted execution on the bottom.
Italy was a really clear instance. It has one of many oldest authorized frameworks in Europe for medical hashish, a common healthcare system (SSN), and robust affected person demand. But entry stays restricted, provide is inconsistent, and the variety of handled sufferers continues to be comparatively low in comparison with its potential.
On the similar time, Italy revealed one thing strategically essential. It is without doubt one of the few markets the place hashish could be prescribed as a magistral preparation with out advertising and marketing authorization, physicians retain a excessive diploma of autonomy, and coverings are already reimbursed at regional degree by means of the SSN.
This creates a basically totally different mannequin from conventional prescription drugs.
What this highlights is that demand already exists, however the system stays fragmented and underdeveloped.
In some unspecified time in the future, I noticed that advising from the surface may solely go thus far. If you wish to remedy these structural gaps, it’s important to construct the infrastructure your self.
That realization is what drove the shift from funding banking to entrepreneurship. I moved from analyzing markets to growing an built-in ecosystem in Italy, combining capital, provide chain growth, and scientific infrastructure.
As a result of in the end, by constructing corporations somewhat than simply advising them, you get a lot nearer to the true drivers of worth on this business, that are entry, execution, and affected person outcomes.
C&T At the moment: A lot of the early hashish growth targeted on scale, particularly cultivation. You’ve argued that the true way forward for medical hashish lies in constructing healthcare ecosystems somewhat than merely rising extra crops. What does that ecosystem appear to be?
CDM: The early hashish growth was largely targeted on cultivation, constructing greenhouses, growing manufacturing capability, sq. footage and scaling provide.
However healthcare markets don’t scale that manner. They scale by means of scientific integration and system design.
A real medical hashish ecosystem contains skilled physicians and structured prescribing, affected person follow-up and monitoring, pharmacy-based meting out, GMP-compliant provide chains, and more and more, information programs producing real-world proof.
Even in Europe, the place the market is projected to succeed in a number of billion euros over the following decade, the limiting issue is entry and integration into healthcare programs, greater than manufacturing constraint.
Importantly, Europe will not be changing magistral hashish with pharmaceutical merchandise. It’s evolving towards a dual-track system: magistral formulations for flexibility and licensed medicines for scalability.
The actual alternative is in constructing the infrastructure that connects these layers.
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C&T At the moment: Your work has positioned a powerful give attention to Italy. For readers who will not be acquainted with the European panorama, why is Italy such an attention-grabbing and sometimes neglected medical hashish market?
CDM: Italy is without doubt one of the most attention-grabbing markets in Europe exactly as a result of it doesn’t match the everyday narrative.
It was one of many earlier nations to legalize medical hashish and has a powerful pharmaceutical custom, a nationwide healthcare system (SSN), and a well-established pharmacy community. On paper, all the important thing parts are there. Nonetheless, in apply, affected person entry has traditionally been constrained by restricted home manufacturing, reliance on imports, and fragmented implementation throughout areas.
Structurally, Italy combines a number of essential components together with a authorized magistral framework, permitting hashish to be prescribed with out full pharmaceutical advertising and marketing authorization; doctor prescribing flexibility, as each physician can prescribe it; and a nationwide healthcare system (SSN) that gives reimbursement for a lot of indications at regional degree.
On the similar time, the market stays considerably underdeveloped.
At the moment, roughly 1.6–1.7 tons of medical hashish are distributed yearly, in comparison with an precise demand estimated above 20 tons.
What makes Italy notably distinctive is that entry already exists, reimbursement is already current, however the system will not be but scaled and requires further funding to increase infrastructure, provide, and scientific integration.
C&T At the moment: Europe’s hashish business operates below very totally different guidelines than the US. How does the healthcare-driven regulatory construction in Europe form the best way corporations develop and make investments?
CDM: The most important distinction is that Europe treats hashish primarily as a medical product, whereas the U.S. has largely developed it as a consumer-driven market. That distinction shapes the whole lot. In Europe, the mannequin is basically totally different.
Hashish is built-in into healthcare programs, which implies it’s prescribed by physicians, disbursed by means of pharmacies, and controlled below pharmaceutical-quality requirements. Firms should function inside medical prescribing frameworks, GMP-compliant provide chains, strict regulatory oversight, and more and more, scientific information, affected person end result necessities, with cross-border interoperability growing over time. This makes the market slower to develop, but additionally extra structured.
Whereas the U.S. gives velocity, scale and consumer-driven development, it additionally has larger regulatory volatility. Europe gives slower growth, however extra predictable, healthcare-driven demand and long-term stability.
For corporations, which means success in Europe is much less about branding and retail, and extra about scientific integration, compliance, and alignment with healthcare programs.
C&T At the moment: You regularly spotlight the significance of scientific infrastructure in medical hashish. Why are doctor training, affected person follow-up, and scientific information so vital for the business’s credibility and development?
CDM: Medical hashish in the end lives or dies on scientific credibility. Physicians want to grasp the way to prescribe it, together with dosing, indications, and potential interactions with different therapies. Sufferers want structured follow-up to make sure therapies are secure, efficient, and correctly adjusted over time. And regulators want dependable information displaying that these therapies are delivering measurable outcomes.
With out that, hashish stays on the margins of healthcare.
That is the place scientific infrastructure turns into important. It bridges the hole between entry and legitimacy by offering structured prescribing and affected person administration, steady monitoring and follow-up, and, critically, real-world proof on how cannabinoid therapies carry out throughout totally different situations.
As a result of in the end, whereas coverage can allow entry, information is what helps reimbursement, doctor confidence, and long-term integration into healthcare programs. In different phrases, scientific infrastructure is what transforms hashish from a permitted remedy right into a trusted and scalable medical remedy.
C&T At the moment: From an funding standpoint, the hashish sector has gone by means of a number of cycles of hype and correction. What distinguishes the buyers and firms which can be succeeding in the present day from those who struggled earlier out there’s growth?
CDM: The hashish business has gone by means of very distinct cycles. The early part was largely pushed by enthusiasm and hypothesis. Buyers targeted closely on licenses, cultivation capability, and projected market measurement. There was an assumption that legalization alone would translate into fast development.
That was adopted by a interval of correction, the place many corporations struggled to ship on these expectations, actually because the underlying infrastructure, regulation, and demand dynamics have been extra advanced than initially anticipated.
At the moment, we’re in a way more disciplined part.
The buyers and firms which can be succeeding are targeted on fundamentals like precise affected person numbers and prescription development, reimbursement pathways and payer dynamics, regulatory readability and compliance, provide chain reliability, and more and more, scientific information and real-world proof.
What has modified is the mindset. The business is transferring from a story-driven funding thesis to a data-driven one. And the businesses that succeed in the present day usually are not those that grew the quickest early on, however the ones that constructed sustainable, compliant, and healthcare-aligned fashions.
C&T At the moment: When you look ten years forward, what function do you hope Italy and the broader European medical hashish ecosystem will play within the world business?
CDM: I consider Europe has the potential to change into one of many world leaders in evidence-based cannabinoid drugs. Italy, particularly, is uniquely positioned to play a central function.
It combines a powerful pharmaceutical and manufacturing heritage, a common healthcare system with present hashish reimbursement pathways, early expertise with magistral prescribing and affected person entry, and a strategic place on the heart of European and Mediterranean provide chains.
If the ecosystem continues to develop, with larger funding in manufacturing, scientific infrastructure, and information programs, Italy may evolve from an under-scaled early adopter into a real operational and scientific hub inside Europe.
Extra broadly, I see Europe constructing a multi-layered ecosystem that connects magistral hashish and licensed medicines, scientific apply and real-world proof, and more and more, digital well being and cross-border information infrastructure. With a inhabitants of over 440 million within the European Union, and greater than 700 million throughout the broader European area, Europe represents a bigger potential affected person base than North America. However what is going to outline Europe will not be velocity, it’s construction. Making it not essentially the biggest market, however one of the crucial credible, structured, and medically built-in.
Finally, the purpose is to construct an business that delivers constant therapeutic worth for sufferers and is powerful sufficient to maintain it over time.
