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Author: Marguerite Arnold

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Greek Parliament Considers New Cannabis Investment Bill

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Politics.

A draft law proposes to ensure the regulation of a safe medical cannabis market at home and for exports.

Greece is steadily moving forward on improving both its investment and regulatory climate to encourage more production of cannabis in the country for export and to normalize cannabis medications from elsewhere.

The draft law of the Ministry of Development and Investment seeks to ensure a regulatory schema for the medical industry. This will include accepting European-wide marketing authorization (so producers do not have to seek individual approval in Greece if approved elsewhere). The restriction on the state monopoly control of products is also coming to an end.

National Distribution

The implications of the bill start with domestic distribution. Producers will be able to distribute domestically through a normalized pharmaceutical channel. This means that they can distribute directly to pharmacies, treatment centres and hospitals.

It also means that Greek producers finally will be able to meet international requirements to export internationally – namely the medical program domestically will fall under the rubric of the national medicines’ agency, which is a first, big requirement for export.

The Export Market Is Calling

The bill stipulates that the production of finished products in 30-gram packets will be permitted. This is a clear bid to enter the European medical market elsewhere (including Germany). The production of such product will also be allowed, regardless of how such products are used in the export country – either as a raw, intermediary, or finished product.

One of the more interesting aspects of this approach, of course, is that it also sets Greece up as a potential producer for not only medical markets but of course, the recreational ones that are now beginning to plan for on-the-ground rollout. See Luxembourg and Switzerland in particular.

The Nevada of Europe?

Greece represents an interesting turn of events for the industry across Europe. Not only is the investment and other climate right for this kind of industry, but the tourist potential from abroad, especially from Europe, is high. Health insurance “travels” here. That means that a German patient-tourist living in Greece, could get a medical cannabis prescription written by a local doctor and get it covered by an insurer at home.

As the Pandemic restrictions continue to lift, and the major issues with access at home continue, it is not unrealistic to expect to see longer-term tourists or even regular, quarterly visits for patients looking for ways to treat their condition more cheaply than they can at home.

For the most up to date information on investment opportunities across Europe, be sure to book your tickets now for the return of the International Cannabis Business Conference to Europe this July!

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Switzerland Moves Forward On More Medical Cannabis Reform

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Medical.

The Swiss Parliament has approved an amendment to the Narcotics Act allowing doctors to prescribe cannabis without special permission and to set up a formal cannabis licensing infrastructure in the country.

Things are looking up for more patient access in Switzerland. Last week the Swiss parliament approved an amendment to the Narcotics Act which will allow doctors to prescribe cannabis more easily. At present, they must still report all cannabis treatments to the Federal Office of Public Health before writing prescriptions. Obviously, this makes the entire process much more burdensome for both doctors and patients.

The Council of States adopted the law last week. 

The bill also regulates the cultivation, production, and trading of medical cannabis.

What Does This Mean?

Switzerland so far has played a highly important role in the development of the overall discussion of cannabis reform. It is outside of the EU, even though it is in Europe. Beyond this, the country is also part of the so-called DACH trading partnership, between Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. This means fast entry into the bloc for cannabis and cannabis products – even though price is still going to be a consideration (generally everything is far more expensive in Switzerland in part because of the country’s existence outside of the EU trading alliance).

Domestically, however, what this means is that the Swiss are starting to increase access to medical cannabis via prescription as the country readies itself for a medical-recreational trial next year, to be run out of the nation’s pharmacies.

This means that all cannabis-related sales that are legit, even for adults without a prescription, are currently being channeled into the pharmacy system.

Impact on The Export-Import Discussion

What Switzerland is in effect doing is creating the first standard for the selling of both medical and recreational use cannabis that is pegged on GMP standards. This is an inevitable result in a world where the only high-percentage THC to cross borders so far (legally at least) has been GMP certified.

However, the implications are huge. While there is not enough GMP product in the room right now for the medical market, this will begin to change as more facilities now become funded and come online (particularly after Covid). What this means in effect, however, is that the Swiss are in the process of creating not only Europe’s first GMP standard market (for everything) but further will attract producers globally looking to sell products to both markets. As a result, this is likely to be a model adopted in newly legalizing states who are also looking at the continued failure of the Dutch project.

For an up-to-the-minute update on changing regulations and European markets, be sure to book your tickets now for the International Cannabis Business Conference’s return to in-person conferences!

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Basque Region Cannabis Clubs Throw Down Gauntlet To Reopen

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Business.

After being devastated by Pandemic shutdowns, clubs in the Basque region of Spain petition their government to let them reopen for business.

Basque region cannabis clubs have now petitioned their government to let them begin to plan for re-opening. The Federation of Cannabis User Associations of the Basque country or Eusfac, will meet with the state government this week to petition them to adopt “less restrictive measures in relation to the activity of the cannabis clubs.”

The situation in Spain over the operations of the clubs has been one of the most fraught in Europe, especially now with both a lawsuit pending about constitutional rights access at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and COVID-19. The Pandemic has severely strained if not shut down operations all over Spain. Clubs have not allowed to open at all and those that do, certainly do not function in the same way. Obtaining product has also been difficult.

The upshot? More people, starting with patients, but including recreational users, have been forced into the black market. While there is still no federal or even state-level regulation of the entire club vertical (akin to dispensaries in the United States), a semi-regulated industry has established itself in the country over the last decade. Most of the clubs were established in Barcelona, but there are similar entities all over the country at this point.

And many are starting to take a stand on formalizing their right to exist – at a formal level – in Spain.

Essential Operations?

In some ways, the situation in Spain is roughly analogous to the situation that led voters in two U.S. states in 2012, to vote for state control of their own cannabis industries. This has been especially true as Barcelona has become the de facto cannabis club centre of the country. However other regions have taken note, especially as the organizers of the entire movement have been prosecuted. Albert Tió currently sits in jail for his role in the same.

During the Pandemic, however, it became very clear that the situation if not the status of the clubs was no-where close to their state equivalents in the U.S. Most were instantly shut down. Many were eventually allowed to re-open, but according to one report, most have reported losing up to 60% of their membership. Curfews have also made an impact. And Covid restrictions, like mask-wearing and social distancing, have effectively killed the social aspect of the clubs.

Regardless, many of the clubs have managed to stay open somehow, despite a rise in crime targeted both at the clubs and those who frequent them. Some report that members are spending more money in the clubs than before. There is a gritty resolve here, gained by facing down authorities and the multiple obstacles required to operate such establishments. A mere Pandemic will not make that go away. 

Be sure to book your tickets now for the return of the International Cannabis Business Conference to Berlin in July 2021!

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Should Free Cannabis Be Distributed In British Prisons?

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Politics.

All sorts of people are lining up to support an idea proposed by a Welsh police commissioner to give free cannabis to the incarcerated.

Arfon Jones, the police and crime commissioner for North Wales, has a radical idea. He believes that free cannabis should be distributed to British prisoners – and for several reasons.

The first is to target prisoners who are taking other kinds of drugs illicitly as well as those prescribed by the prison system. The second is to lower violence.

Jones, along with others directly involved in the welfare of prisoners is raising this idea in part because of the prevalence of other, more dangerous, and highly addictive if not deadly drugs taken routinely by those behind bars. This includes drugs prisoners are prescribed as well as illicit ones smuggled into prisons. 

Generally, Jones also falls into the camp of those who wish the drug to be regulated to remove organized crime from the equation. He is also a supporter of home-grow for limited personal use. But he is far from the only member of the police who sees a need for a formal policy about cannabis – both in and outside of lockup.

In 2019, an inquest into drug smuggling into a single British prison – HMP Berwyn – found that organized efforts to stop the same by authorities and prison staff had systematically failed after a 22-year-old inmate died in his cell from ingesting Spice. About 13% of male British prisoners have reported becoming addicted to illegal drugs while in prison.

Opioids are obviously a concern, but so is Spice – a so-called “cannabis substitute.” Spice is in fact made from a chemical, synthetic cannabinoid, but its effects can be deadly.

According to Professor David Nutt, former UK government drugs advisor and currently working in the industry, this is a great idea. Indeed, he is considering a study to see whether cannabis could reduce drug dependence by the incarcerated

Do No Harm

While political arguments on both sides of the aisle (from both Labour and Tory ministers) have also skewed to the prohibition side of the equation, there is a growing interest in this discussion from a public health perspective.

Indeed, as medical cannabis becomes more accepted as medicine, its role in helping to treat those who struggle with other kinds of dependency, from other drugs to alcohol, will become far more standard. 

Where better to test this idea than prisoners?

Be sure to book your seats at the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Germany in July 2021.

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Portuguese Authorities Set Retail Price For Medical Cannabis

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Medical.

Infarmed, the Portuguese medicines and medical devices agency, has now set a reference retail price for medical cannabis patients in pharmacies that equals the black-market price – but still no word on whether health insurers will reimburse the costs.

Portuguese patients can look forward to a more regulated retail price for medical cannabis at pharmacies as of April this year. Infarmed, the Portuguese version of the FDA, has set the price for 15-gram bags of medical cannabis at the point of sale in pharmacies at €150 per bag of 18% THC flower. This means that retail prices for cannabis in pharmacies is now set at widely set black market rates across Europe.

This price point is also roughly equivalent to what insurers are reimbursing pharmacies for in Germany – which begins to create a regional, not just in-country reference price for the industry.

The next problem is, however, is that unlike Germany, the list of conditions the drug will be prescribed for is much narrower than in Deutschland (basically six conditions commonly seen in MS, cancer, AIDS and chronic pain). Further, there is no discussion (yet) as to whether national health will cover the cost (as is true in Germany, even if it is still a major bureaucratic, paper strewn fight). In Germany, those patients who are able to obtain coverage face a bill of €12 a month.

How Will This Help the Overall Legalization Discussion?

While the formal price setting is certainly a good step, and further one which takes real market conditions into consideration, a terrible price gap is still in the room for the most vulnerable of patients – in other words, precisely the people who are likely to get a prescription in the first place. Three hundred euros a month is about the amount of disposable cash a person on disability benefits gets to spend every month on food and other essentials. There is no way such people can afford the new “legal” channel of cannabis unless they get some kind of additional help.

Regardless of the immediate impact on the ground in Portugal however, this is a clear sign that the commercial medical market is in fact beginning to normalize – not only in country but across the region.

This also means that GMP producers, for example, can begin to have a much clearer idea of returns, costs and margin throughout the supply chain. This in turn will have a stabilizing impact on the industry – and allow investors to have a much better idea of potential returns.

As a result? 2021 and beyond should begin to see the kind of serious investment in the infrastructure of the industry that it actually needs. And that is good news for everyone.

Be sure to book your tickets now for the upcoming investment and business networking International Cannabis Business Conference in Austin and Berlin!

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Morocco: The Next Country Cannabis Domino To Fall

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Politics.

A bill to legalize medical cannabis is widely expected to pass in Morocco this week after multiple previous attempts at reform have failed

As Reuters reported last weekend, the African country of Morocco plans to pass a bill this week to allow for the farming, export and domestic sale of cannabis for medical and industrial use.

The idea is to use such revenue to help impoverished farmers in the Rif mountains. 

Although this legislation will finally legalize cannabis in the country, Morocco is no stranger to the cannabis plant. Indeed, the country has been one of the top global producers of the illicit variety according to the UN. In December, Morocco was one of the countries to vote for the removal of cannabis from Schedule IV classification internationally.

The Impact on Europe

The change in this North African country’s drug policies could have potentially huge knock-on effects in several places, starting with Europe – and not just in helping to stem the illicit cannabis and hash flows north into the region from Morocco. Legalization of the cultivation and trade routes will do much to clean up corruption and the violent black market that has long also been associated with the same.

However, what it will also do is introduce a huge potential source of at least raw cannabis that can then be processed in Europe, even if it is not grown there. If not introduce 

The implications as a result, both for the medical market as well as the industrial one is large.

Cannabis as High-Value Cash Crop

As countries in Europe continue to set official prices along the supply chain (see most recently Portugal’s point of sale medical pricing), it means that the hunt for high-quality cannabis at price points that can only be created with less than Northern European labour rates will rev up to a new urgency. Particularly as countries like Germany also begin to establish in-country extraction facilities.

Even so, cannabis is certainly likely to remain a cash crop with a premium that beats most other kinds of agriculture. For that reason, poor farmers everywhere, including places like Morocco, stand to benefit.

While growing cannabis legally of course is not a panacea, anywhere, for embedded social and economic problems, creating legitimate cultivation markets for it is also proving to be good for starting to address some of them.

Be sure to book your tickets now for the upcoming International Cannabis Business Conference events in Austin Texas and Berlin Germany!

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The Swiss Step Carefully Into First Semi-Legalization Project

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Politics.

Recreational cannabis will be available from Swiss pharmacies as of 2022, on a limited trial basis.

If there is one word to describe the European approach to cannabis generally, it has been so far, caution. If there was another, it would be regulation. There is nothing “casual” or indeterminate in every European national approach to a conversation that is now so overdue it is burning its way into international discourse.

Even more pressing for the Swiss at this point, a non-EU nation in the middle of Europe, is the fact that their neighbours in Luxembourg are barrelling towards a recreational experiment of their own in 2022.

The solution? A national trial which will allow up to 5,000 adults per participating municipality, to purchase cannabis in Swiss pharmacies – without a prescription. Even more intriguingly, all the cannabis sold via this route must be produced domestically (it cannot be imported). Furthermore, THC content may not exceed 20%.

Prices will be set to compete with the black market – and can be adjusted on the level of THC in the strain.

Cities must submit their own plans to participate in the trial, which is intended to run for five years.

Some of the other requirements are a bit vague including proving “previous experience” with the plant as a consumer. How is one supposed to “prove” a previous experience with cannabis? No doubt the savvy Swiss will find a way.

It may not be Colorado, in other words. But it is clearly a move in the right direction. And further, it may also signal where Luxembourg’s first recreational cannabis crops will come from beyond Portugal.

A Blended Market Based on High Levels of Testing

For all the lack of opportunity – at the moment – for a “coffee shop culture” there is one thing to say about the Swiss experiment. It will be regulated, from the beginning with high levels of testing along the way. GMP levels may not be required for cultivation but testing in GMP labs is likely to become de rigeur. In Switzerland, as well as across Europe. 

There are unlikely to be as a result, any pesticide scandals rocking the nascent Swiss recreational industry.

How this hybrid approach will work is still, for the moment, in the hands of cities across Switzerland who are now tasked with coming up with detailed plans. Will it all go as smoothly as a proverbial Swiss watch? Undoubtedly not. This is cannabis reform after all. But it is a venture into territory which for the most part, most European countries are still highly loath to tread.

For the most updated information on the changing regulations of the European cannabis industry, be sure to book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Europe, Summer of 2021.

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Bangkok Embraces Cannabis Cafe Culture

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Business.

It may not be Amsterdam, but Thailand is taking a stab at infused cannabis reform.

Thailand, which enacted cannabis reform as of Christmas Day, 2018, as a “gift” to the Thai people, has slowly begun to define a domestic cannabis culture. This, also despite the rigors of the Covid-19 Pandemic, includes retail establishments like cafes and restaurants that are reaching into traditional cuisine and culture to create a host of CBD-infused delicacies, from teas to food infusions.

On December 9, 2020, most of the cannabis plant, except for THC-rich flowers, has been decriminalized formally for commercial, licensed purposes. The Health Ministry is still responsible for dispensing these.

The first “cannabis cafe” has now even opened in the Thai capital, serving products sourced from an authorized local farm. 

They also have competition from another establishment – a dessert shop that plans to sell sweets infused with cannabis.

However, Bangkok is not the only city to see cannabis cuisine pop up in the country. In Prachinburi province, a new cafe and restaurant began offering cannabis-infused dishes, including deep-fried cannabis leaves and pizza.

This entrepreneurial boost is, of course, notably happening during COVID-19. When travel opens again, Thailand is sure to be ready for them, with its new cannabis offerings.

Cannabis Tourism After COVID-19

The Thai embrace of the regulated industry, albeit without the THC, is in marked contrast to the Dutch take on the same – notably in the city of Amsterdam. Pot tourism, generally, is not popular right now in Europe, in direct contrast to say, Thai efforts. 

What will happen in the aftermath of COVID-19, however, is very much in the air. In multiple jurisdictions, access to the drug has noticeably shrunk thanks to Pandemic-related measures. It is unlikely to stay stuffed in this box as restrictions lift.

This is especially true in Europe right now – where the Dutch recreational tender is still unresolved, and as Luxembourg eyes its own on-ramp to the discussion, now scheduled for the end of this year if not early next.

There is also, of course, Greece, which has hovered over the discussion for the last several years as the country continues to try to rebuild its own economy, which already cannot be entirely disentangled from at least the medical cannabis conversation.

Post–andemic, the discussion of retail establishments operating legitimately in the biz, whether they are geared to a local or visiting audience is going to be hot stuff.

Be sure to book your tickets now to the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Berlin, Summer 2021.

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Spanish Government Continues To Fund Medical Cannabis Research Even As It Has Jailed Club Activist

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Science.

Despite the red tape and the imprisonment of Albert Tio the Spanish government is funding some medical cannabis research

Some good news from Spain on the cannabis front at last! As reported by Público, a Spanish-language public affairs and news zine, the Botanical Institute of Barcelona which is a joint project of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the City Council of the Catalan capital is entering its fourth year of government funding for cannabis research.

The project is funded on a federal level by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, which has been given a license by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS). The ultimate objective of the study is to understand the plant’s traditional uses in human history.

The project, led by Teresa Garnatje, consists of 12 researchers and the faculty of Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona. Researchers have already traveled to several countries to obtain, in collaboration with local botanists, samples of indigenous, or what is called “Landrace” cannabis strains. They are also actively asking that those in countries where cannabis is not legal or other restrictions on travel and research exist, that they at least obtain samples of DNA. So far, the team has been focused on Asia and Eastern Europe where cannabis is more easily found still in the wild and uncultivated.

Three years into the project, the researchers have so far gathered between 5-600 samples. The idea is to understand the genetic components of the plant, the variability of species found in the wild, and a way to improve production – whether by growing in “natural” environments or even hybridized.

Given how unstable commercial strains of the plant have proved to be, especially in a GMP, pharmacized production environment, this research may help improve production quality and stability in every medical cultivation market.

However, the question also remains at this point, with a human rights claim pending in Strasbourg, how the Spanish government can jail an activist whose only crime was being ahead of the formal research and putting his life on the line for better access for those who need the drug the most.

This kind of hypocrisy is nothing new of course – in Spain or anywhere else reform powers forward. But is the reason why full and final reform is needed, now. In Spain. In Europe. Not to mention many other regions and jurisdictions.

Be sure to book your tickets for the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Berlin this summer!