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Author: Marguerite Arnold

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South African Police Crack Down On Illicit Cannabis Industry

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Business.

If there is a truism in the world of cannabis, it is that if you give the cannabis industry the slightest crack and it will flow through. That said for all the enthusiasm, there are still laws and regs to be followed.

In South Africa, the SAPS (the South African Police Service) has issued a warning that the entire cannabis industry is essentially under watch, and notably, the establishment of any brick and mortar retail site, online platforms, and social media promotions are all still illegal.

This warning does not apply of course to medicines authorized by the Medicines and Related Substances Act. Further, while growing and consuming cannabis at home in private is now legit, doing so in public with any substance with more than 0.1% of THC is still a crime.

Naturally of course, just as in other places this will be hard to enforce, particularly beyond urban areas. The country has always seen cannabis production, albeit mostly of the illicit kind. Stop an individual in the street with flower, however, in this environment and it could just as easily be CBD.

Stopping the profusion of online media, whether it is deemed “advertising” or not, will also prove tricky in a world where such promotion can be international.

That said, it also appears that the South African government is trying to get a handle not only on domestic production but imports into the country and of the medical and CBD kind. To do so legally, one must possess a valid license.

Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are also very much in the room, particularly as the country is considering exports to the rest of the world – namely the much-vaunted European medical market.

However, no matter how well planned the transition is supposed to be, it is also clear that South Africans, like just about everyone else, are a bit ahead of the politicians.

Putting the cannabis genie back in its bottle, in other words, is harder than it sounds, and in truth, almost impossible to stop once the ball (as in South Africa’s case too) actually gets rolling, no matter how many police warnings are issued.

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How Much Does Your Medical Cannabis Cost?

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Medical.

The question of patient access, just about everywhere, comes down to not only a way to easily obtain one’s cannabis, but also to be able to afford it.

Patients just about everywhere (with a few exceptions) are still struggling with both issues.

In The US…

Cannabis is not federally legal yet. However, economics in many state markets, particularly recreational ones, have continued to push the price of cannabis lower. That said, for many patients any out-of-pocket is prohibitive. Thanks to a lack of federal reform, there is no health insurance that currently covers anything but dronabinol in the United States, let alone a mandate to prescribe and cover cannabinoids. Adding insult to injury and even in the largest state economy (California), towns and municipalities are allowed to ban the cannabis industry from operating within their jurisdictions. This has already created “cannabis deserts” where patients have to drive long distances to find legal outlets, not to mention continued to encourage the online, unregistered, and grey markets to flourish.

Patients, depending on where they are in the U.S., and whether or not they can avail themselves of a non-profit collective, can pay fairly low prices for cannabis. But they can also be forced into expensive, recreational-only models. It is still all over the place.

In Canada…

Patients so far have retained their right to grow at home, and as a result, access in Canada is the easiest and cheapest out of any country so far. However, it is not so easy to be completely “off-grid” when it comes to medical cannabis. So far, at least, there is also no mandatory health insurance coverage for the same. All expenses come out of pocket, and growing medical-grade can get expensive, even at home.

In the UK…

Assuming that Brexit is still possible, look for massive disruption on the cannabis front if it happens. Even though the drug can now be prescribed by Schedule II prescription, rumours are that as of this fall not a single patient has been reimbursed by the NHS so far. With the number of operations outsourced to private surgeons skyrocketing, expect the same thing on the cannabis front. Look for extremely rocky territory here as the issue continues to make headlines, and that the doctor to write the prescription will set you back about $1,200 per month when combined with the cost of medical cannabis.

In Europe…

Germany is the most “forward” when it comes to patient access. However, while patients theoretically can get their medical cannabis covered under health insurance (so prescriptions can cost the patient about $12 per month), this is not the reality for many Germans. Out-of-pockets, even when you can find a doctor to prescribe, can easily run $1,200 per month. While the supply chain problem is also starting to ease, there are still major issues with achieving a steady supply at most pharmacies across Germany.

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A Focus On German Patients: What Do They Still Face?

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Medical.

At an undisclosed location, somewhere in Bavaria, a group of activists met on the first weekend of November. They were drawn there by their friendships and their long-time struggles to gain access to medical cannabis.

All of them were sick. But for all the disabilities, across a range and spectrum of chronic conditions, there was also a very serious commitment at the gathering too.
These were all German cannabis patients, frustrated with the many issues still in the room since the market began to reform and change in 2016.

Most have not been able to find regular doctors. All of them have struggled with insurers and finding regular supplies at their local pharmacies (including in big cities like Berlin), and a lot of them are starting to cultivate cannabis again if they ever stopped.

For all of the “reform” in the room, namely that cannabis is now available by prescription in German pharmacies, there is still a long way to go. What is on the market is too expensive not only for patients, but also insurers, to cover in increasingly large numbers. Changing the compensation that pharmacies must charge (as is now in the offing) is just one small piece of the conundrum.

In Germany currently, legal medical cannabis that patients can buy in pharmacies costs more than twice as much as what can be found on the unregulated market, and on the grey market prices can frequently go as low as 5 euros a gram, if not “free” for those who grow at home illicitly.

Some of the more business and cost-minded patients are estimating their costs too. Even the fairly novice growers understand that they are looking at the same costs per gram as growing say, tomatoes. Unless of course, they get caught.

Many patients now carry their cannabis in the pre-packaged containers that all the big companies provide flower in for the German market. The joke of course, if not the reality in every medical cannabis market in Europe right now, is that it is not what is actually in those plastic jars.

The patients at the deep end of both sick and tired are defending themselves in the only way that they can. As more than one of the meeting attendees said, “What are they going to do? Arrest me? They already have.”

Everyone knows at this point though, that at least a part of the battle has indeed been won. Germans at least know that really sick people can in fact legally obtain and use cannabis. The particulars, at least so far, however, have not moved the needle anywhere fast enough.

For those whose mobility and/or budgets are limited by their condition, the only way to respond in both protest (if not effective challenge) is very simple – grow their own, or be part of a cooperative that includes them for free or for a minimal charge in a circle of people who know this is the only drug that helps them manage their condition so effectively.

To leave them out of the circle of care, would be, at its core, a very un-German thing to do. It is not a message that the “industry” wants to hear, but it is in the room and as a steady drumbeat that will not go away.

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The IACM Pushes The Medical Conversation Globally

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Medical.

Dr. Grotenhermen, the charismatic canna doc you might have seen or encountered in the world of ground-breaking medical cannabis science auf Deutschland, was on stage a lot in Berlin last week. He and a group of world-famous scientists, doctors, and medical researchers came together, as they do once every two years, for the bi-annual meeting of the International Association of Cannabinoid Medicines.

The audience was large, international and attentive.

What Is New?

There is clear evidence that cannabis is a wonder drug for a range of neurological conditions – from Parkinson’s’ to Alzheimer’s to epilepsy and traumatic brain damage. That was a big part of the conference discussion.

There are brave doctors who now say, in public, and professional conferences such as this one, that treating seriously ill children with cannabinoids, including small amounts of THC, is also effective.

The opioid-cannabinoid discussion was also in the room, with rather shocking data out of the US proving what activists and advocates have long known – cannabis is a gateway drug off of opioids, not on to it.

One of the coolest things about this conference is that it has stayed true to, since its inception, the inclusion of patients. Everyone in the room knows how hard it is to get trials going, and every serious canna doctor also knows that sometimes their best “research labs” are the unceasing din of patients now demanding the drug.

While the research and the data from both mouse and human trials is important, so are patient experiences and the IACM has never forgotten that.

The IACM is also making a concerted effort to bring diversity to speakers. There is now spoken understanding that women and cannabinoids are the next unexplored frontier.

Perhaps the best panel from the nitty gritty end of the conversation was a frank “how to” for doctors considering treating their first cannabis patient. There are not enough of them. Anywhere. A fact that the IACM is also dedicated to changing.

What Is Not New?

As encouraging as advances are, if not the range of voices now uniting globally calling once and for all for medical change, there of course is much that is not new.

Doctors and researchers talked about frustrated funding efforts, including for trials. Patients as always have stories to share about stymied access and punishment.

There is a deep seated understanding, at least within the ranks of the pro-cannabis medical community, that the pace of change and acceptance is still too slow. As one questioner to the patient panel posited, perhaps the medical community should again take up the mantle of struggle that was first pioneered by gay activists in the struggle against AIDS and dropped during much of the modern legalization movement post 2010 in Canada and the U.S.

We are, as cannabis patients, everywhere. Get used to it.

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France Authorizes A Cannabis Experiment

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Medical.

On October 25, the French National Assembly finally gave the green light to a national experiment with medical cannabis. This has been in the offing for some time. As of now, the French government is finally willing to give the cannabis discussion a two-year trial. The Medicines Agency has already signed off.

Cannabis will be able to be prescribed for patients with treatment-resistant conditions including epilepsy, nerve pain, side effects of chemotherapy and for diseases of the central nervous system, including uncontrolled muscle contractions.

That said, the French are skipping the idea of “prescription joints” and will make oils and other ingestible basics (including drinkables) available via French doctors and through French pharmacies.

Prescribing doctors will have to complete an online training course, the details of which have not been released.

Will France Challenge Germany As Europe’s Most Lucrative Market?

Comparisons between France and other countries when it comes to cannabis are at this point premature. However, the French are certainly approaching the issue in a way that so far, even Germany has not.

Doctor training and certification, for example, are not centrally managed, administered, or even made available (no matter how many people are trying to set this up). However, Germany will be a producer within the next two years, unlike current plans in France. Unless and until French cultivation happens, French patients will be caught in the same conundrum as everyone else in Europe.

The idea of getting a prescription is very nice, but actually obtaining one, plus the approvals of health insurance to remove the burden of payment, is much, much harder than many people think.

In the short term look for more foreign-based businesses to get established in France, and further to see products entering the country from all points of the globe, starting with Portugal, Spain, Greece, and Poland.

There is a silver lining of course. Now that the two most powerful, economically intact economies in Europe are in the cannabis basket, it will drive other kinds of reform.

The idea of getting patients into an established program and out of the unregulated market is the ultimate goal, of course, however, it is a goal that is so far unreachable in an environment where medical cannabis is still expensive and far too hard to obtain.

So yes, vive la cannabis! But this is hardly the great green wave revolution most in France, if not in other places, have hoped and fought for. This is not the vision of the “industry” that most have sacrificed and worked for.

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Do Medical Cannabis Patients Ever Really “Come First?”

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Medical.

Putting patients first is a mantra that you hear a lot in the cannabis industry, and certainly in Europe. The problem is, no matter how much the “industry” says it, is this really ever true? In multiple places, patients, advocates, and their ilk are up against a for-profit industry that takes no prisoners.

In fact, in Canada, the industry has repeatedly tried to challenge the constitutional right of Canadian patients to access the plant unsuccessfully. Until that goes away, at least in Canada, patients are actually the industry’s biggest, albeit grey market, competition.

In Europe, the conversation is slightly different. However, the discussion is, by definition,  “pro-patient” starting with the fact that most of the bigger companies are public and focused on profits. This means that the industry, certainly within Europe, is looking for ways to preserve its mandate – namely the right to produce, manufacture and distribute (if not export) a product that in its raw form can be grown in a backyard garden, greenhouse, or even indoor grow room without too much difficulty.

As it has elsewhere (see Canada and the United States), this also automatically pits those with capital against those without. There are many, many patient groups who see the future, and it does not include them in it. Being a passive consumer who has to fight paperwork to get a product they might not necessarily want or choose is not the mandate of most activists in this part of the world.

Why should patients organize and fight to normalize an industry that has rarely included them?

That was the question on the table in Poland last week as the first Central European Cannabis Forum kicked off in central Warsaw. Yes, the room was full (of a mostly Polish crowd, but also an international audience). Yes, the big guys showed up, but so did the patient groups and the organizers of the network in Poland. 

Because the industry in Poland is still “illegal” no one is really doing any selling. The patient groups have designed, like elsewhere, efficient non-profit distribution channels that have nothing to do with going public or posting profits, but rather making sure sick people get help.

It is that clash that the industry (everywhere) has yet to address, even though the industry for the most part in Europe is focussed on medical, not recreational. 

Why is that? Because there are still so many patients who have yet to be accepted into the growing medical system. Even when they are, they have to deal with hassles that simply do not exist in the cheaper unregulated market.

Patients, even in a still medical-only market that promises at least to help with the high costs of treatments, are still left in the cold.

Finding ways to incorporate advocate patients into the legitimate industry is in effect, the only answer to help address this important issue. So far, at least, it is a conundrum that neither the business interests trying to solve the problem or patients themselves have adequately answered. But it is the biggest question in the room, no matter the location of the conference.

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What Is Going On With Portugal’s Cannabis Industry?

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Business.

Licensing is underway in Portugal, although the competition is as fierce as it is in many other markets. The government changes rules, slowly, then opens up the gates and then everyone rushes (or tries to rush in).

The interesting thing about Portugal right now from an international perspective (certainly in Europe) is how the country is starting to pivot to cannabis production that is licensed, medical, and bound for export.

But how will freewheeling, “all drugs are decriminalized” Portugal really stack up against other contenders moving into this space, such as Spain, Greece, Poland and (North) Macedonia? They all have great weather, cheap labour rates (or at least cheaper than Germany and the UK), and are closer to Europe than Canada, Latin America, or Africa.

Is freewheeling Portugal really all its cracked up to be? Not really, and politically the current temperature is bound for a backlash. It is one thing to decriminalize all drugs. It is another thing to deal with those who use them irresponsibly.

And then there is this – between 2012 and 2017, statistics for alcohol, tobacco, and drug use in the general population have actually risen 23%. There has been just under a 2% increase in the use of psychoactive drugs in the same period.

While this could also be traced to the economic meltdown that hit many less prosperous countries in Europe hard during that time period, it is not a great PR moment for the canna cause.

Further, Portugal is not entirely copacetic on the idea of actually legalizing medical or recreational cannabis use (including grow your own). It hasn’t really happened yet.

Democratizing The Weed

No matter the impressive stats that the industry is starting to chalk up, there is far from democratic access to the plant, and that exists almost nowhere, even when governments are responsible for sales (as is the case in Europe).

How should the involved parties proceed? Everyone needs to get paid.

Many of these issues, in truth, will continue to evolve. In the future, assuming there is a survival of government health care, expect these themes to belong in the room. How much money medical cannabis can actually save health insurers is still a conversation for the future. However, conversations like this will not occur in an environment where the plant and products created from it are seen as “expensive.”

The Portuguese experiment is an intriguing situation that has already begun to impact the discussion across the continent, and will for a long time to come. Going forward it is clear that even the relatively freewheeling country of Portugal is starting to look at the entire discussion with a bit more of a conservative viewpoint.

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Cannabis The Commodity – Crisis Or Opportunity?

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Business.

It has now been almost six years since Colorado started its recreational cannabis experiment on the state level. In Canada, it’s been a year. But what is on the table now that cannabis is becoming commoditized – for good and for bad?

1. The sickest, poorest patients are generally not obtaining adequate access anywhere. This is because, while cannabis might be on the way to being commoditized, it is still expensive, even in Canada where prices are dropping. Why is that? Sick people, with little to no income, cannot afford their medication.

2. A growing list of countries are looking at the equation now as a way to boost income and taxes. Unfortunately, like in Poland where patients currently face a 23% tax on their meds, that is a bad model. Taxing the sick is one of the stupidest ways to raise public revenue, especially if those individuals are also on disability benefits. When one looks at the Dutch model, in particular, it is very clear that the country had little intention of keeping patients covered under health insurance when it was more advantageous to force Dutch patients into the recreational market and export the medical crops grown in-country across borders for a higher price. That is not a cannabis industry discussion, it is a policy one (but one, so far, that has not been addressed anywhere) In the U.S. and Canada, it is worse. In part, because many politicians want to distance themselves from the discussion and figure that giving a few more giveaways to corporations and the 1% is a good idea. Unfortunately, it’s business as usual.

3. Licensing and certification fees are the name of the game for governments determined to participate in the cannabis miracle anyway that they can, even if at a distance. But in every country, these fees are exorbitant, essentially creating an industry run by the white, the rich, and, no surprise, predominantly male population.

4. The “industry” cannot widely fix these problems. It is ludicrous to expect a still partly illegal, if not grey, market to regulate itself. However, governments are equally reluctant to get their hands dirty on this one. This leads to all sorts of market disruptions – not to mention outright embarrassing flameouts (see CannTrust).

5. The idea of making huge amounts of money on cannabis is an idea that is slowly dying. Although, of course, those in the room first, via various dubious equity raising techniques like reverse mergers, are the ones who have shoved everyone else out so far and gained market share. That is unlikely to continue. After all, who thinks of getting rich off of tomatoes? No one.

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Would A Successful Brexit Boost The Chances Of British Cannabis Legalization?

Written by Marguerite Arnold on . Posted in Business.

It is no secret that the British are in a bit of a constitutional pickle at the moment. How far the country will align itself with the US and outside of the EU is still in play, two weeks out from Halloween. 

One of the stranger vibes in the air, especially after Boris Johnson hired two cannabis reform advocates into his office of late, is the idea that chucking the relationship with the EU and recreational cannabis reform might be linked, if not a good clarion call. 

After all, Aron Banks is no stranger to the CBD call either.

Are people on the British side of the industry seriously advocating Brexit as a way to push forward recreational cannabis reform in the UK? The answer, shockingly, appears to be yes.

Burn It All Down, Baby

For those at the pointed end of the cannabis discussion (namely patients), the debate about how money laundering laws are enforced to target cannabis-themed investments or not within the UK is currently a bit of a cruel joke. For anyone invested or working in the cannabis industry, the continued stutters and starts of the British market is not part of an academic discussion. 

Also, the snail’s pace of British cannabis reform has continued to prove to be too much for just about everyone. 

Who Can Blame The Brits For Wanting Their (Medical) Spice Cake And Eating It Too?

In this environment, it is tempting to just push recreational cannabis reform ideas under the larger ideas of burn, baby, burn which seems to now be in fashion in the geography of Number 10 (Downing Street and official residence of the British Prime Minister).

However, for those who think Brexit is a quick fix – think again.

Start with the fact that the UK is an island nation, and would be required to suddenly grow and source a huge amount of its own food and medicine. Also, the NHS would, as most believe now, simply not survive. Private (American-style) healthcare anyone?

While cannabis might in such circumstances come to be lauded as the wonder drug it is, like a new penicillin for example, does anyone think that bouncing the British economy around to do it under this kind of turbulence is really in the best interests of either patients or recreational consumers that would presumably be shell and wallet shocked?

Deregulation, in other words, and certainly of the kind that seems still to be in the room with a no-deal Brexit, might seem exciting, particularly to those frustrated with the hangover of the prohibition of the past.

However, such strategies are indeed a double-edged sword, both for (certainly) the British economy as well as Britain’s most vulnerable citizens who are cannabis users either “by choice” or through necessity.