Policy – Page 87 – International Cannabis Business Conference

Malawi Farmers Considering Cannabis As Demand For Tobacco Declines

Written by Johnny Green on May 2, 2022. Posted in Archives, Business, Policy.

The life of a small-scale farmer is not an easy one. After all, there are no set hours and there are no days off. From sunrise to sunset you have to do as much as you can to get the most out of every day, especially during non-winter months.

Tobacco farmers have it even harder in that the crop that they cultivate is surrounded by a great deal of stigma, and understandably so. Smoked tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death on earth.

With that being said, not every tobacco farmer is greedy and evil. Many simply cultivate tobacco because that is essentially their only option. For some farmers in Malawi, cultivating tobacco is the foundation of their existence.

Malawi ranks 7th globally for overall tobacco production and leads the world in cultivating the ‘burley’ tobacco variety. Burley tobacco leaf is commonly used for making cigarettes.

As demand for tobacco products continues to decline around the world, farmers in Malawi are scrambling to try to find a new crop to cultivate.

More and more farmers are considering cannabis as an alternative to tobacco, however, the price for licenses is extremely steep, especially considering that Malawi is one of the poorest countries on earth. Per Africa News:

Growers, who operate in groups of around 30, have on average to cough out $10,000 per collective in farming licence fees alone.

Easing the process of obtaining cannabis licences would give farmers an immediate boost.

“It takes just about three months to mature, and then boom, we have the forex,” said Tchereni.

“Licences can’t be this expensive.”

Malawi is not the only country in Africa that is considering making the transition from cultivating tobacco to cultivating cannabis.

As we previously reported, Zimbabwe is also seeing an uptick in interest in cannabis among farmers. Zimbabwe is Africa’s largest overall producer of tobacco.

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How Many UK Patients Are Being Privately Prescribed Cannabis?

Written by Johnny Green on May 2, 2022. Posted in Archives, Business, Policy.

The United Kingdom is a fairly rough place when it comes to safe access to medical cannabis. The country’s medical cannabis program is notoriously restrictive, leaving suffering patients with little to no options depending on the situation.

For starters, the number of medical products that are considered to be legal in the United Kingdom is very low. Raw flower is not available to patients, and patients are not permitted to cultivate their own cannabis.

The National Health Service only allows cannabis-based products. Below is the definition of what that involves, via the National Health Service’s website:

There are three broad requirements that a product should satisfy:

The product is or contains cannabis, cannabis resin, cannabinol or a cannabinol derivative

It is produced for medicinal use in humans; and

It is a product that is regulated as a medicinal product, or an ingredient of a medicinal product.

The definition is necessarily broad to take account of the range of preparations which are cannabis-based that have been used for therapeutic purposes and to ensure that raw products/ingredients and intermediate products are captured.This is essential to ensure that where there is a clinical need, a patient will be able to access appropriate cannabis-based medicines and/or products can be made to meet any prescription.

Patients can get a prescription for a cannabis-based product through the National Health Service (NHS), however, as of last summer only 3 prescriptions had reportedly been issued by NHS.

Filling the void left by the NHS is private prescriptions. The prescriptions can only be issued by clinicians listed on the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council, and even then, the products eligible for a prescription are limited.

According to a new report from Prohibition Partners, private prescriptions have risen in the last two years. Below is an excerpt from their report:

Based on Prohibition Partners’ calculations, which conservatively assume all quarters in 2021 are equal, the annual number of products for last year amounted to 23,466 – a 425% increase on 2020. Things are moving more quickly elsewhere in the UK. On the island of Jersey, with a population of just over 100,000 inhabitants, more than 2,000 prescriptions were filled from January 2019 up to late 2021.

To put the figures into perspective, Prohibition Partners estimates that there are as many as 1.4 million patients in the United Kingdom that would purchase medical cannabis products if they were able to.

With that in mind, the uptick in private prescriptions in the UK is welcomed news, however, the UK’s medical cannabis program still has a long way to go when it comes to improving safe access for suffering patients.

In addition to expanding the type of products that patients can acquire, such as raw flower, patients also need to be able to cultivate their own medicine if they choose to do so, among other much-needed improvements.

Thailand Has Granted 80 Cannabis Licenses

Written by Johnny Green on May 2, 2022. Posted in Archives, Policy.

Thailand is getting ready to embark on a unique public policy journey with plans to officially launch a nationwide, every-household-eligible cannabis program this summer.

As of June 9th, every household in Thailand will be able to cultivate low-THC cannabis if they choose to, and according to prior coverage provided on this website, there will be no limit to the number of plants that someone can cultivate as long as they are registered with the government.

People and entities are already applying for licenses, with some already being granted by Thailand’s government. Per Bangkok Post:

The general public and organisations have filed 4,712 applications with the FDA, seeking licences related to the use of either as an ingredient or product.

So far, 80 licences have been granted for the production of cannabis, hemp and cannabidiol (CBD) products, including hemp seed oil, dietary supplements, beverages, seasoning sauce, jelly candy and instant food, said the FDA official.

In the grand scheme of things, 4,712 applications is a drop in the bucket for a country that has a population of roughly 70 million people. The granting of 80 licenses is an even smaller drop in the bucket.

However, every country has to start a new program somewhere, and with weeks to go before the program actually launches, it’s likely a safe bet that the number of applications will spike considerably between now and June 9, and along with it, a spike in the granting of licenses.

Hiccups and bumps along the way are to be expected given that Thailand is doing something that has essentially never been tried before. Hopefully the launch of home cultivation proves to be successful and it encourages other nations in Thailand’s region to reform their cannabis laws.

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55% Of Australians Want To Regulate Cannabis Like Alcohol According To New Poll

Written by Johnny Green on May 2, 2022. Posted in Archives, Policy.

Back in 2012, I was part of a network of activists pushing for legal cannabis at the state level here in the United States. We were able to get adult-use cannabis legalization on the ballot in three states that year – Colorado, Washington, and Oregon (Oregon is where I live).

The activists in Colorado had the best political messaging out of the three efforts, heavily relying on the ‘regulate cannabis like alcohol’ talking point. It proved to be a tremendously successful way to frame legalization with voters. Much better than the ‘regulate cannabis like tomatoes’ talking point that many activists (not me) were promoting here in Oregon as part of what would prove to be a losing effort for us on Election Day in 2012.

Alcohol is common in society, and unlike tomatoes it induces intoxication. Yet, people are able to consume it responsibly and governments are able to regulate it. Given that alcohol is exponentially more harmful than cannabis, the ‘regulate cannabis like alcohol’ message resonated with a wide voter base because it was a logical approach to implementing sensible public policy.

It’s a concept that has since expanded well beyond the borders of the State of Colorado, and it’s still something that resonates with voters, as proven by a recent poll conducted in Australia. Below is more information about the poll via an excerpt from Cannabiz:

The online survey of 1,086 adults aged 18-plus, conducted by polling company Essential Research from March 30 to April 2, found 50% of respondents support making cannabis use legal, double the number recorded in the 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey.

And a majority — 55% — favour regulating and taxing cannabis sales like alcohol or tobacco.

Meanwhile, 58% want medicinal cannabis made more affordable and accessible by allowing people with prescriptions to grow their own, and 62% support scrapping current drug-driving laws.

All of the poll’s results are insightful. However, the 50% level of support for ‘making cannabis legal’ compared to the 55% level of support for ‘regulating and taxing cannabis sales like alcohol’ really stood out to me. It demonstrates how many more people will support reform when there is a regulated industry component being proposed, and that it would be based on a similar regulatory structure as alcohol.

In years past, the concept of regulating cannabis like alcohol was just a theory. Now that a number of jurisdictions have implemented the practice, including Canada at a national level, places like Australia can see it working in real-time.

Legalization works. Regulation works. Hopefully lawmakers in Australia see these poll results and work to get their country on the right side of history sooner rather than later.

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Religious Cannabis Use Provisions Are Creating Confusion In Trinidad And Tobago

Written by Johnny Green on May 2, 2022. Posted in Archives, Policy.

Trinidad and Tobago is a dual-island Caribbean nation that is home to roughly 1.4 million people, some of which use cannabis for religious purposes. The most well-known religious group in the nation that uses cannabis for sacramental purposes is the Rastafarians.

The Caribbean nation is currently working to ramp up its medical cannabis industry, with a bill working its way through the House of Representatives. The provisions specific to religious use seem to be causing quite a bit of confusion.

There are five cannabis licences that people who use cannabis for religious purposes can apply for:

a cultivator licence
dispensary
import licence
export licence
transport licence

The licenses can only be obtained after the organization they are a part of is registered per the Non-Profit Organisations Act, and the organization attests that its members use cannabis for religious purposes. However, getting a license apparently creates additional issues under the provisions of the proposed measure in the House, as described by Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally earlier this month. Per Newsday:

He said while only a specific amount of marijuana for sacramental or religious purposes would be available, it did not address how religious leaders would be expected to get it as the sale of marijuana was prohibited under the bill.

“When we look at Clause 47, we are told that there must be no commercial benefit, no sale, supply or any transaction involving cannabis for sale, profit, monetary gain or compensation. But not even water which falls from the sky is free, so how then are we expecting the religious groups to procure, store, maintain and dispense cannabis, completely devoid of any cash flow, to facilitate a basic access to cannabis for religious use?

“Anyone who contravenes the section, that is to say engages in handling cannabis for money not necessarily for profit because it can be for mere reimbursement of monies used in acquisition, can be liable to stiff penalties.”

Members of Trinidad and Tobago’s Rastafarian community are pointing out that if getting a license doesn’t allow them to possess more cannabis, then why go through the trouble of obtaining a license?

Cannabis was decriminalized in Trinidad and Tobago in 2019, and people can possess up to 30 grams of cannabis and cultivate up to 4 plants on their own property.