Author: Marguerite Arnold

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Argentina Begins To Move Seriously On Medical Reform

Written by Marguerite Arnold on April 21, 2021. Posted in Medical, Politics.

The world’s eighth-largest country moves forward on legislation to create a federal industry.

Here is the interesting thing about sovereign cannabis reform – It is rather unsurprisingly beginning to reflect the national cultures that allow the same. How that begins to impact the international discussion is still a conversation in progress.

Here is one thing to be sure of about the decision of Argentina to begin to formalize the medical cannabis discussion on a federal basis.

This is the country that created the first animated feature film, the one with the highest number of plastic surgeries in the world and the one with the highest number of psychologists per capita. It is also the one that eats gnocchi on the 29th of every month.

In other words, prepare to be surprised. While certain aspects of reform look the same just about everywhere now adays, there are still going to be interesting riffs on a theme.

The Drug War is finally over, including in Latin America – and the Spanish twist to this tango is about to add to the entire debate in a way that has not been seen (yet) – and will reverberate in other countries (starting with Spain itself).

The Argentine Specifics

While the law is still in draft form and being revised by several agencies, here is what is shaping up as important elements of the same: The country will create a formal, provincial medical cannabis laboratory, continue to develop its user registry and set up an advisory council to set standards and guidelines for the therapeutic use of cannabis.

The other aspects of all of this, namely a plan to industrialize the production of cannabis and further how to prioritize “free” distribution to those who are the sickest, but none have been decided yet.

Regardless, the fact that all of this is on the table means the discussion is not only moving seriously, but likely to impact cannabis conversations in several other countries. That includes intercontinental Exim throughout Latin America. It also almost by definition includes Canada and Europe.

Don’t Cry for Me…

The forward development of the reform question is a good sign – especially in a country which has taken the slow boat to this entire conversation over the last few years. The patient registry got started last fall. It is clearly now part of federal plans on a much broader scale. And while it won’t happen tomorrow, reform is clearly not only on the table, but rolling forward slowly.

Be sure to book your seats now for the International Cannabis Business Conference when it comes back to Germany in July.

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State Of The Cannabis Industry: Spring 2021

Written by Marguerite Arnold on April 21, 2021. Posted in Business.

Green shoots and leaves are poking up all over the place as the industry figures out how to survive the Pandemic as well as other powerful forces.

There is a sense within the industry these days that the long tail of the Pandemic might last for another couple of years, but this is no excuse for slowing down. Indeed, all over the continent, from business development meetings to organization of another kind, there is a sense of resolve that is evident. Namely, that while Covid might be still kicking ass, the industry is determined to power forward. After all, the veterans have seen bigger challenges go down (starting with any kind of legalization). Covid may be a global health emergency, but it is not the first that has helped shape the industry (starting with AIDS).

For this reason, from the medical side to those on the CBD side of the discussion, those in the thick of business development are having a busy spring just about everywhere in Europe.

Things to Be Aware Of:

Here are a few big-ticket issues that are certainly making a difference:

The CBD industry is certainly taking off and going mainstream in interesting ways – no matter the still existent hurdles (and they exist, starting with Novel Food).
The medical industry is still in the nascent stages of formation – starting with compliant cultivation and production.
The entire conversation is going to get far more interesting thanks to the recreational trials in Luxembourg and Switzerland. Namely, other European countries are going to be given a model to begin to follow or adapt in the face of tailwinds from a Pandemic where almost every form of economic development is on the table. This includes cannabis – and even in Germany. In the meantime, the medical conversation will continue to go forward, no matter how frustrating it can be from the front end of the trenches.
Paths to market and accessibility will continue to improve, but behind all these developments is certification. Financing will become more and more dependent on the same (including going public). See the activity on the London Stock Exchange.

The entire industry in other words, is pulling its proverbial socks up and getting ready for the next stage of development just about everywhere. Europe, certainly, is at a turning point.

The firms that will prosper in the next 24 months are those who can swiftly adapt and turn to changing market conditions.

Be sure to book your tickets now for the return of the International Cannabis Business Conference to Europe in July!

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Switzerland Begins To Define Its “Recreational Trial” For 2022

Written by Marguerite Arnold on April 14, 2021. Posted in Politics.

As of May 15, 2022, Switzerland will begin a recreational cannabis trial

It is official. The Swiss have chosen a date and the trial parameters. Switzerland is going recreational as of next year.

Here are the parameters. 5,000 Swiss people will be able to legally smoke cannabis. They will be part of a trial in which will measure effects on users’ health and consumption habits. Participants, as a result, will have to accept a follow-up interview and to limit their consumption.

Those who might worry that the consumption level is a bit low? Do not. Trial participants will be able to buy cannabis at up to 20% THC. Each month, participants will be able to consume up to 10 grams of THC. To put this in perspective, patients in Germany right now are being prescribed half a liquid gram a month (to the whopping tune of about $400).

This amount, in other words, is enough to get the average user more than toasty on a regular basis. It is also enough to make sure that patients who fall through the cracks will be able to have at least some access to legal cannabis. The fact that the trial will mandate sales at pharmacies makes this even more convenient.

Why This Is Important

Luxembourg and Switzerland will, as of next year, begin to set the pace on recreational reform discussions, and not just in their own countries of course, but across Europe. From the get-go, both extracts and edibles will be in the discussion.

Beyond this, the trial is likely to have an important impact on the question of dosing and how much patients should be getting across Europe.

From the recreational side, look for important discussions about driving and working. Not to mention how long THC stays “active” in bodies long after the immediate “high” is over (when it happens).

There is another reason, however, why this trial is important. It will be the first organized attempt by the government to put cannabis on sale and study those who buy it. It is also a deliberate attempt to create a legitimate market.

It will be watched, intently, for this reason, across the region.

Be sure to book your tickets for Berlin! The International Cannabis Business Conference is returning as of July, 2021!

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South Africa Set To Legalize Recreational Use By 2023

Written by Marguerite Arnold on April 14, 2021. Posted in Politics.

The country is looking to the industry to help revitalize an economy wrecked by Covid.

South Africa is lining up to join the list of recreational cannabis companies by 2023. The country is now considering a bill to legalize the possession, cultivation, and use of cannabis for recreational use with this date in mind.

The reason, besides the medical market and thriving underground black market? The country’s economy is suffering from the effects of the Pandemic.

This one factor is likely to be the driver in stepping up the plans in many countries – and far beyond Africa, in finally engaging the cannabis reform discussion at the recreational end of the discussion.

In South Africa’s case, this is also likely to have an impact not only on the domestic economy as well as exports, particularly to Europe, but other countries in Africa.

The Shifting International Recreational Picture

By 2023, at least two countries in Europe will be in the middle of a recreational trial. Holland’s recreational model will presumably have had time to bake, and France will be in the thick of its own medical experiment. Germany will also presumably have moved forward on its own cultivation plans.

That creates a lot of markets looking for certified product. Further, it begins to create a multi-use market where it is not only medical in the picture. And that all must come from someplace.

South African firms are beginning to export to Europe. The German market, however, by 2023, will not be the only one on the table. And that is potentially where enterprising South African firms might make a difference – especially given the slow pace of development of cultivation across the EU and that it has been slowed by Covid.

And then of course there is the appeal of canna tourism. With a recreational market in full swing, the South African economy will potentially become a place where the entire discussion will take a new turn.

Regardless, no matter what direction the industry begins to morph into, the development is a positive one and promises many sunny returns, no matter how they begin to trickle in.

Be sure to attend the International Cannabis Business Conference this year in Berlin when it returns in July.

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German Federal Hemp Tea Case Decided

Written by Marguerite Arnold on April 7, 2021. Posted in Business.

A hemp tea seller from Braunschweig was charged with federal narcotics violation charges – but just released after a German federal court decided that they were not trying to “intoxify” anyone. The question is, what does this case really mean?

Here is the headline. The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has just annulled drug trafficking charges against hemp tea purveyors in Braunschweig. The district court sentenced the defendants to several months in prison but then placed them on probation. The federal court, however, dismissed the case not on the narcotics charge (in other words it did not disagree with the initial charge), but dismissed instead on the intent of the defendants to cause intoxication by distributing parts of the plants.

And here is the new confusion. According to some in the industry, this is a huge step forward – and on several fronts. Namely, if you are selling hemp flower and parts in Germany, with no intent to intoxify, even if you come in slightly “hot” on the THC side of the equation, are you set free from the restrictions of the German Narcotics Act?

Technically, legally, no. That is where the many problems lie, no matter the other intriguing legal interpretations now floating in the blogosphere. This also has implications for all food products in the market.

According to the court decision, generally, per the opinion of some industry insiders, the more important case here is still the European Commission’s decision last fall. Namely that CBD is not a narcotic. Indeed, many in the German industry, including the company directly involved in this case, are calling for the removal of hemp from the German Narcotics Act, generally.

Until that happens, however, while the general market is absolutely going to be affected, it is not all clear sailing for the hemp and CBD industry.

What Are the Current Regulations to Watch?

When it comes to hemp, there are several big issues still in the room in Germany alone, let alone the rest of Europe. That is why harmonization of the standards across the region is so important. There has yet to be a “Farm Bill” in Europe for example, although again, the EC’s decision of last year has been a big step forward.

Beyond the discussion of “narcotic” or not, much less intent to intoxify, there are still processing and labeling discussions that fall under Novel Food, and which have also certainly not been finally addressed.

The most definitive silver lining in other words? Hemp tea sellers are not going to get charged with drug trafficking charges again any time soon, if ever again, aus Deutschland. The rest is still evolving. Watch this space.

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CBD Is No Longer A “Narcotic” In Slovakia

Written by Marguerite Arnold on April 7, 2021. Posted in Medical.

The country becomes the last in the EU to remove cannabidiol from its national list of “psychotropics” and to legalize its use.

While there are often kudos paid to being “first” – in anything, and far from cannabis – there are also those who deserve attention for taking the tortoise route – especially when they finally get there. Slovakia has now joined the rest of the EU and finally seen the light on CBD.

As of March 18, the Ministry of Health submitted a proposal to legalize CBD on the grounds that according to the UN, CBD is not listed as a psychotropic medicine. The European Commission also decided the same last fall – but those are just the details in the weeds of all of this.

That said, because the country is also now watching what the EU will do on extracts and oils, it is also clear that there is starting to be a movement at the sovereign national level to normalizing the entire cannabis conversation – even if it starts with CBD. And that further, failing input from the democratic process domestically (citizens and advocates), the EU will begin to play an increasingly important role in setting policies that affect the entire industry and in every country in Europe.

Why Is the EU Level Bureaucracy Increasingly Important for Reform?

For those who are less than enthused about bureaucracy generally, the prospect of “reform” at the EU level, especially on this issue, is a groan fest. This particular part of the world is the least democratic, most paper-strewn, rules-driven part of the planet. Federal U.S. politics look “easy” compared to this.

Anyone with any experience in waiting for the EU-level coordinated Covid vaccine to roll out any time soon (in other words everyone) can understand viscerally what the holdups have been on the cannabis front.

However, just like the overdue attention, those at the top of things are getting on the vaccine discussion, the cannabis conversation now brewing is fundamental and increasingly inescapable.

The issues of homogenizing the market, on standards, from simple hemp and CBD oil to medicine and beyond that, full and final reform are finally on the table.

Slovakia, in other words, might be the last to recognize what CBD actually is – but it is coming at a time when further discussions, and of a watershed kind – not just in one European country – but all of them – are taking place. And it is, of course, long overdue.

Be sure to book your tickets now for the International Cannabis Business Conference investor forum in Austin and of course, when the International Cannabis Business Conference returns to Berlin in July!

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Is Spain On The Verge Of Regulating Cannabis Clubs?

Written by Marguerite Arnold on April 7, 2021. Posted in Business.

As a monumental challenge to the current law loses in Strasbourg, organizers including political parties are challenging the government to regulate the sector (as well as fully legalize it).

Things are continuing to bubble in Spain over the regulation (and by definition legalization) of the entire Spanish cannabis club conversation.

As Albert Tió now spends his nights in jail for the foreseeable future after losing his case in Strasbourg, a call has gone out for a new federal discussion about the role and formal acceptance of cannabis as well as the infrastructure and industry that has grown up here in between the weeds. Namely, a senator, Geroa Bai, has now introduced the idea of the regulation of the industry, as well as the legalization of limited home grow.

The introduction of the same is far from its passage. The battle here has been particularly nasty for several years and on the legal, federal level. With a losing case at Strasbourg, it is also clear that the entire access conversation will have to go through the legislature rather than the courts – which is perhaps the biggest takeaway of the Tió case.

With the activist now serving active jail time (even in a Pandemic) the entire conversation has taken another turn. The industry does not need any more martyrs (and is hardly short of them at this point to begin with). Free Albert Tió, however, is a bit more visceral a slogan than a faraway club closing or tangling with the fuzz over supply.

Post-Pandemic Economic Activity

Given the prevailing winds in Europe, including successful court challenges from the commercial and patient side as well as a map for recreational reform in three countries (Holland, Switzerland, and Luxembourg), there is zero-way Spain can sit this out much longer. The reality is that legalizing the entire infrastructure would also create a legitimate source of taxable income that every government coffer is absolutely starved for.

Just like in other places, the economic benefit argument (don’t forget the employment question beyond this) is increasingly stronger every day the pandemic stretches on. And in the interim, important legal cases are starting to show up on the map (including in Germany).

In the meantime, expect national legalization and regulation bills to start showing up all over the map. And even if, as in Spain, they might fail for the next few years, the inevitable dawn is beginning to break in a systematic way over the cold, bleak landscape of prohibition in Europe.

Be sure to book your tickets to the next International Cannabis Business Conference events!

Covid Pandemic Puts Isle Of Man Medical Cannabis Program On Hold

Written by Marguerite Arnold on March 24, 2021. Posted in Medical.

Authorities have delayed a program to authorize doctors to prescribe cannabis describing it as “low priority” during the Pandemic.

The islands around the UK are having a quiet cannabis revolution. Places like the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey and indeed the Isle of Man (off the southern tip of the UK) are moving forward to enact reform of at least the medical kind as green economic development if not critical healthcare for island residents. Unfortunately, plans to enact reform on the Isle of Man have just hit a snag. Health Minister David Ashford has said that the plan is still “on the agenda” but pushed because of the Pandemic.

Ashford said that there were “greater priorities” than introducing new cannabis legislation to the island. Ashford also cited reticence of GPs to prescribe the drug was also an issue.

Currently, per UK law, only specialists can prescribe the drug. This means that the initial visit and screening process is also much more complicated for both patients and the NHS. On a small island, this process gets even tougher.

Critics have suggested that this program should go ahead on schedule anyway and indeed have cited the model followed on the island of Jersey where a small number of general practitioners who operate out of clinics, can prescribe.

Untangling a hundred years of prejudice

Delaying the inevitable, and for any reason, appears to the watchword of just about all authorities, wherever they are, on the topic of reform. This has been true for most of the Pandemic, despite noted successes on a global level and the EU one (see the WHO decision and the European Commission decisions).

Regardless, it is also clear that reform is going to be in the air this spring and in several different ways. Doctors themselves are hardly above the din (in both the UK and Europe). The resulting pressures is forcing the conversation forward, even if, as in this case, step by step and painfully. And with plenty of delay.

And while these circular arguments are still in fashion (no reform equals no doctor education), they are becoming thankfully, rather rarer.

The Intersections of Covid and Cannabis

As the Pandemic drags on and governments repeatedly drop the ball on rolling out Covid medication, more and more focus is coming to bear on the process of cannabis legalization and, at minimum, why at least medical cannabis reform is not rolling right along with it. Including the increasing realization that cannabis might impact Covid symptoms.

Be sure to book your tickets now to the International Cannabis Business Conference conference for investors in Austin as well as the return of the International Cannabis Business Conference to Berlin this summer!

Cannabis Stop And Searches To Be Examined In London

Written by Marguerite Arnold on March 24, 2021. Posted in Politics.

The UK may be having a Black Lives Matter moment on the issue of stop and search by the police looking for “illegal drugs” including cannabis.

Move over Meghan and Harry! The Mayor of London is doing his part to further race equality in the UK and even more, where the same intersects with cannabis. Namely, Sadik Khan has drawn up plans to eliminate the practice of the Metropolitan Police of stop and search on the suspicion of the same.

Much like the U.S., more attention is being paid to how minorities are treated by the police right now in the UK. This includes the fact that minorities are stopped and charged more often. And suspicion of drug possession is the most common reason given by British police officers for the search in the first place.

In addition, as broken by the Guardian newspaper, there is apparently at least one other major police force outside of London which is considering curbing the reason for a stop and search in the first place.

Time for A Change on Minorities and Cannabis Everywhere?

No matter how much times change, they still seem to stay the same. In the 1930s, cannabis use (including of the medical kind) was used to stigmatize both black people (in the United States) and Jews (in Germany). Ever since the association with race and cannabis use has blotted an issue that is again finally rising to public awareness.

The review by Khan follows a report by the police inspectorate that revealed that almost half of all stop and searches in England and Wales have been carried out by the Met police. The question now firmly in front of lawmakers in cash-strapped times is whether this is really an effective use of the police force’s time.

The Met is also setting a target to recruit 30% of its new officers from minority populations, rising to 40% as of next year. According to Khan, “It is crucial that our communities feel they are properly listened to and concerns about the disproportionate use of police powers acted upon if we are to improve the trust and confidence among all Londoners.”

Make sure you get your International Cannabis Business Conference tickets now for the upcoming investor conference in Austin and the return of the International Cannabis Business Conference to Berlin this summer!