Hello friends of CannaVigilance,
If you live in the southern hemisphere, today is the first day of Spring. Congratulations, you made it through another winter. While you are dusting off your short sleeved Hawaiian shirts, we up North are getting ready for two more conventions this month – Lisbon and Zurich. At least for the Zurich one we don’t have to travel very far (insert winky emoji here).
As a company, we believe that we should stick to the rules and that abiding by rules will build a solid and trustworthy industry that will move forward sustainably. We are very proud to have passed our first ISO-certification (and we know we look like geeks in the picture, but hey we cracked it).
We are not the only people who believe that rules will help our industry, so in order to help spread the love (of rules that is) we have some interviews for you to read this week.
Why standards and verification make sense
Reading and learning about standards, audits, certifications and specifications always involves a lot of information. Nevertheless, everyone knows that you have to comply with them to be able to distribute your products, to get that license you need or to convince investors. That’s why we took a deep dive into the topic with Cannavigia advisor Johann Züblin, who explains how things work and why they should work. In addition, Cannavigia product manager Jan Kenel explains how our software can help you comply with the required standards.
Read the article here.
What the Moroccan cannabis industry looks like
Another expert we spoke to is Omar Sefraoui of ‘Chanvrières Industrielles du Maroc’. He has been involved in hemp cultivation and now in the cannabis business for a long time and knows how things work in the Moroccan cannabis industry. To complement our cannabis country report on Morocco, he gave us some more insights into his work and the local industry.
Read the full interview here.
Where Cannavigia is going next
We already talked about the upcoming CB Expo in Zurich and Medical Cannabis Europe in Lisbon in our last newsletter. Now we have some more details for you.
The CB Expo in Zurich will take place on 10-11 September – this is where you will find us at the trade show:
- Booth S12: Come visit us at our stand or schedule a meeting here.
- Panel: Cannavigia CEO Luc Richner will be speaking on a panel about The Future of Switzerland as a Leader in the Cannabis Industry at 3pm on the main stage.
Just a few days later, we will be flying to Lisbon for the Medical Cannabis Europe on 15-16 September. If you will be attending as well, this is where you can find us:
- Booth 11: Check out our LinkedIn event, hit the participate button and schedule a meeting so we can talk about your project.
- Panels: On the first day of the conference, Luc Richner will speak about Swiss Cannabis Market Framework and shortly after, at 5.15pm, CCO Elias Galantay will do a presentation about Cultivation and Primary Processing of Cannabis.
We hope to see you soon at one of the trade shows!
A vigilant eye on cannabis news
- The UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group for CBD products has published ‘A Plan for a Legal and Regulated UK Hemp and Cannabis Sector’ that stresses in its opening paragraph that the country doesn’t have to legalise recreational cannabis, but it can still be a hub for the industry (and make money from it). The APPG’s manifesto is packed with ideas and projections for the UK’s cannabis industry. These include an estimated 594,000+ jobs, £5.5 billion in annual tax revenue, and environmental and agricultural benefits aimed at meeting carbon neutrality commitments by 2050. The UK risks falling behind the rest of Europe in creating a coherent strategy for its own cannabis industry. We wait with bated breath to see what happens next. Read more here.
- Estonia has upped the legally allowable THC content for their hemp farmers and increased the amount of government subsidy grants. This means that the farmers will have a wider variety of seeds to choose from. In Croatia voices are getting louder for the proper implementation of hemp laws that will stimulate the economy. Even though the industry is rather chaotic at the moment, there is a feeling that it may be legalized by 2025.
- The President of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, announced a project to approve recreational marijuana. The president also confirmed that the regulations for the law on hemp and cannabis for industrial and medicinal purposes are ready. In his presidential campaign, Chaves had made it clear that he was in favour of the legalization of recreational marijuana. Still down south, “It is time to accept that the war on drugs has been a complete failure,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced during his inauguration festivities earlier this month, commenting on a bill his administration recently presented to legalize recreational marijuana to Congress. Supporters of the new legislation believe that legalising recreational cannabis can push thousands of farmers away from drug trafficking and into the legal trade.
- The German saga continues with everybody talking to everybody else, but little moving forward towards legalisation. According to Dirk Heitepriem of the Cannabis Business Industry Association Industry there is little room for international trade and importing from traditional growers such as Morocco or Lebanon. “The UN conventions stand in our way, as do European regulations,” Heitepriem said, adding: “We assume that there will need to be in-country production, at least initially. This requires massive investment and, above all, a lead time of one and a half to two years to provide the necessary production capacities.” We will have an interview with Heitepriem and his colleague Jürgen Neumeyer about this situation within the next few weeks.
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