Tag: United Kingdom

GW Pharmaceuticals wins the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2021 – what next for the British market?

GW Pharmaceuticals, the sole British medical cannabis cultivator and producer, known mostly for Sativex and Epidiolex – has been granted a prestigious award. Namely the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. For those unfamiliar with the prize, it is a tradition that has been around since 1966 when it was first established, by Royal Warrant, to promote British companies who exported their products.

The fact that a cannabis company might win the award is, in its own way, an industry first. However, when it comes to the history of GW Pharma, this should not be surprising. The company was established at the end of the last century as the only British company that could cultivate cannabis for pharmaceutical purposes.

Today, the company’s drugs for MS (Sativex) and a form of child epilepsy (Epidiolex) are exported globally. 

The biggest problem of course for acceptance – if not sales? Both drugs are on the highly expensive side of the equation. So much so that the country’s own health department – the National Health Service – did not cover it until a bulk purchase with the company could be negotiated (within the last 24 months).

Studies have also shown that drug tolerance (within a year) is an issue the company has still to negotiate.

Beyond that of course, the politics around creating a monopoly on medical cannabis production while denying the same medicine to the British public (also while former Prime Minister Theresa May’s husband was a major shareholder) has always rankled the rest of the industry. 

The reality? Reform so far in the UK has come, in fact, in spite of, not because of GW Pharma.

What Next?

At this point, after several years of imports from other places – starting with cannabis oil that treats epilepsy and other conditions that GW Pharma medications do not – the entire cannabis discussion is already more than just one company.

Both cultivation and extraction facilities are getting off the ground – and obtaining hard to get certifications that will allow them to compete with GW Pharma for the first time. 

Beyond that, cannabis reform at least of the decrim kind is at least on the agenda of the newly elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. 

GW Pharma, in other words, may have won the right to have tea (or at least an audience) with good Queen Lizzie. In the meantime, the rest of the industry is evolving around it.

Be sure to book your tickets now for the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Europe – Summer 2021!

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the most popular substances on earth right now. CBD’s level of popularity has grown exponentially in the last 5 years, and there’s no end to the spike in popularity in sight currently.

Part of the reason why CBD’s popularity has exploded in recent years is the increase in media coverage. That media coverage has touched on positive studies related to CBD’s medical value, as well as stories involving patients that have successfully treated their condition(s) with CBD.

As more and more patients try to find safe alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs many of them will presumably try CBD and a significant number that try CBD will likely find it to be beneficial and continue use.

Unfortunately the European Commission does not appear to be a big fan of CBD, at least not from a safety standpoint.

The European Commission recently categorized CBD as a narcotic. That categorization is being rejected by food regulators in the United Kingdom. Per Hemp Industry Daily:

Great Britain has rejected the European Commission’s preliminary stance that hemp flower-derived CBD should be regulated as a narcotic, a key food safety regulator in the United Kingdom says.

Paul Tossel, who leads the Novel Foods authorities at London’s Food Standards Agency, said Tuesday that although British authorities continue to mirror requirements set out by the EU’s Novel Food Regulation and the European Food Safety Authority, they did not agree with the Commission’s assessment.

Tossel said during a panel on the future of CBD in grocery retail that the European Commission’s preliminary CBD position isn’t shared by the U.K.’s Home Office, a government department that oversees drug policy and law enforcement.

There’s no valid reason to categorize CBD as a narcotic. CBD has been found to be safer than most household substances and is by all measures a relatively benign food ingredient from a health risk standpoint.

CBD is an amazing ingredient for food products because it provides wellness benefits without any risks and doesn’t seem to affect the taste of the food product. CBD is in many ways a ‘wonder food’ and should be classified accordingly.