Hello friends of CannaVigilance,
We bring you good news this week about laws moving forward in Romania, Japan, Isle of Man and Ireland, an increase in licenses in Portugal and all the way from India we have a story about rats who don’t rat. We also have some in depth interviews about the business in South Africa and Colombia and last but not least, we have a conversation with a Swiss grower about pitfalls and problem solving. But, we’ll start off in Thailand…
Our first trade show in Thailand
What a great trade show we had in Thailand! Lots of excellent new contacts, interesting conversations and a first-hand insight into the fast-growing Thai cannabis industry. Watch the video of our experience on LinkedIn – and give us a like!
An update on South Africa & Colombia
Are you interested in what is happening in the South African and in the Colombian cannabis industry? Good thing that our business development managers have been to trade shows in the respective countries and gave us a thorough overview of the markets there.
This is what it takes to grow cannabis in Switzerland
Our client and Speropharm CEO Thomas Stalder gave us an interview on his business, what obstacles he had to overcome and how he solved them, and well, and we are happy to be part of the solution.
Read the interview here
A vigilant eye on cannabis news
- On 22nd November the first international debate on medical cannabis in the Romanian Parliament took place. Organised by Romania’s Health Commission of the Chamber of Deputies together with the Victoria Mea Association with keynote specialist from various countries, it is hoped that this may open the door for the legalisation of medical cannabis in Romania. There is also movement in Japan where in 2021 an expert committee was established to review the Cannabis Control Act. It is expected revisions will be proposed in a bill to be submitted in 2023. This will most likely allow for the use of medical cannabis. On The Isle of Man a medicinal cannabis dispensing service has begun as part of a one-year trial. The service has been delayed twice due to “technical issues” with the Department of Health and Social Care and the UK Home Office. And in a final contribution to our “one-step-forward” section of the newsletter, an Irish lawmaker has introduced legislation that would decriminalise the possession of small amounts of cannabis by adults for personal use. Under the proposal the criminal penalties for low-level cannabis possession would be eliminated but the plant would remain illegal.
- A study commissioned by the Portuguese Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Apifarma), revealed that the number of licenses for the cultivation of cannabis has quadrupled after three years of the new law that regulates the medicinal use of the plant. The study shows that in the first half of this year 61 licenses were issued in Portugal – 23 were for import/export, 20 for cultivation, 10 for commercialisation and 8 for the manufacture of cannabis-based compounds.
- The Swiss Federal Commission on Issues Related to Addiction and the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (CFANT) expressed its support for the legalisation of cannabis this week. The Swiss parliamentary committees have already given the green light to the legalisation of cannabis , a regulation which would therefore go further than the current experiments in the controlled distribution of cannabis. At the same time the pilot programme has seen a delay due to domestic cannabis failing to meet stringent pesticide requirements. This has resulted in the program looking elsewhere to source its cannabis.
- Police in India have claimed that 500 kilograms of cannabis that went missing from the evidence room was eaten by rats. The court, not totally believing the story, has insisted that the police provide evidence. There has been no comment from the rats who, presumably, refuse to rat.
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