El prosecretario de la Presidencia, Rodrigo Ferrés, y el secretario nacional de Drogas, Daniel Radío, recibieron en el Torre Ejecutiva a una delegación de la Cámara de Empresas de Cannabis Medicinal y acordaron la constitución de una comisión para analizar modificaciones al decreto 46/2015 que regula esa actividad. Ferrés (también presidente de la Junta Nacional de Drogas) dijo en conferencia de prensa que el presidente Luis Lacalle Pou "tomó la decisión de impulsar a esta industria incipiente que puede generar muchos recursos, trabajo y, por su calidad de producción, una marca país". Buscará "mejorar el marco jurídico" para "mejorar la operatividad" de la industria del cannabis medicinal y que "pueda desarrollarse en su mayor potencialidad", especialmente en materia de exportaciones.

The two biggest parties making up the new government said they would push for increased legalization of cannabis use, a week after the police minister backed easing enforcement of existing laws. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White said in a joint statement that they would advance legislation “to resolve the issue of decriminalization and legalization,” apparently referring to recreational cannabis use. The matter will be done “via a responsible model that will be suited to the State of Israel and the Israeli population,” the statement said, without elaborating.

With the issuance of a wide-ranging ministry report on the medical cannabis industry, Israel is for the first time making clear its intention to back the burgeoning sector, according to a ministry official. The white paper on Israel’s Medical Cannabis Innovation, published earlier this month, maps out the industry’s ecosystem — the key players, leading startups, breakthrough research at academic institutions, government regulations, and opportunities that await investors should they decide to take the plunge. The global medical cannabis industry is expected to grow from $13.4 billion in 2018 to $44 billion by 2024, according to the IMARC Group.

The Dutch government is planning to issue a second licence for the production of medicinal cannabis to meet growing demand patients. The only company authorised to produce cannabis for medical use, Bedrocan in Emmeloord, has increased its output fivefold in the last five years to 2,604 kilograms. Bedrocan received its licence 16 years ago from the Office of Medicinal Cannabis (BMC), which buys the entire stock and distributes it to hospitals and pharmacies. Around half of it is sold abroad to countries including Germany, Italy and Poland. The BMC, established by health minister Els Borst in 2000, is expected to start the European tendering process for a second licence in early June.

The Health Ministry it would remove cannabis from its dangerous drugs ordinance list, a move that would allow pharmacies to begin selling the plant. Specialist physicians would be able to issue a normal prescription for cannabis, like any other medication, without the need for a license or prior approval from the Health Ministry. The decision will allow pharmacies to sell controlled cannabis products to patients over the age of 18. Doctors will be able to prescribe up to 40 grams. Prescriptions will be valid for several indications, including oncological diseases, inflammatory bowel conditions, neurological conditions such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease, HIV and severe epilepsy in minors.

In April 2017, when the Central government and the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued the first-ever research licence to grow cannabis to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR – IIIM) in collaboration with Bombay Hemp Company (BOHECO), it was the start of something unprecedented. Cannabis startup Boheco was banking on the revival of cannabis to improve research, reduce drug abuse and aid cancer patients. Since November 14, 1985, when the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act came into force in India, the use of cannabis, with the exception of bhang, has gone underground.

American businessman, Chase Ergen and Greek billionaire, Alki David, have formed a consortium aimed at developing the cannabis business in the Eastern Caribbean nations. The duo has disclosed plans to purchase agricultural land and partner with farmers to create a cooperative entity modeled after the ones in Switzerland. The first plane load of hemp seed for a designated parcel of land totaling 300 acres arrived in St Kitts and Nevis, but focus will also be placed on Dominica and Antigua. Ergen and David intend on reaching out to business and government leaders across the region. The cannabis initiative is expected to create thousands of jobs and will also tap into the rich cultural history and cannabis know-how of the strengthening Rastafarian movement in the region.

In New Zealand, it’s Māori communities who have been hit by racial bias in drug policing. Even when accounting for rates of use, at every stage of the criminal justice system, Māori are more likely to be apprehended, charged, and given a prison sentence than their Pākeha pot-smoking counterparts. In this 2007 report, for example, Corrections notes that on the basis of equivalent usage of cannabis, Māori experienced arrest at three times the rate of non-Māori users. Now, New Zealand is poised to legalise. But who stands to benefit from a medicinal cannabis industry?

Europe’s most commonly used illicit drug has moved from the coffee shops of Amsterdam to mainstream political debate. But EU governments remain deeply divided in their attitudes to cannabis. What’s the right path for Europe to take on cannabis, and where does Brussels’ role lie? What Brussels can do is feed information to member states through tools like directives. This is something it could do right now with medical cannabis, but it has not yet taken the initiative. So each member state has no idea what it should do about the medical use of cannabis in terms of EU policy. To be sure, Brussels cannot obligate a country to conform to a directive.

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce of Jamaica, Senator Aubyn Hill, has suggested the legalised sale of marijuana to visitors as a way for Jamaica to earn revenue from countries that do not allow imports of the herb. "We don't have to send it in plane loads [as an export item]. We have to get our act together through the CLA [Cannabis Licensing Authority] , through the ministry, through RADA [Rural Agricultural Development Agency], and make sure the people who come here to buy our export product called tourism and hotels and jerk and so on, have access — legal, proper, regulated access — to this product," he said. (See also: Cannabis sector eager to expand tourism market; Hill said his comments were confined to the sale of medical cannabis)

For almost 40 years now, cannabis cultivation has been a crime in India. But that has never stopped farmers in parts of Himachal’s Kullu, Chamba, Sirmaur, Shimla, Mandi and Kangra districts. In fact, the premium on quality charas only serves as an incentive for them. But the hush-hush nature of cannabis farming could end if the Himachal government goes through with its plan to legalise the plant for medical and industrial use. The idea isn’t new. In 2018, former Himachal CM Jai Ram Thakur had made a similar announcement. But it was only in April this year that the government brought a resolution to the state assembly to legalise cannabis. The panel headed by Himachal revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi tabled its report in the assembly on September 22, and described legalisation as a ‘game-changer’ for the state.

7 de cada 10 socios de los clubes de cannabis de Barcelona son hombres y casi la mitad (45%) tienen estudios universitarios o de posgrado. Casi todos utilizan la marihuana de manera recreativa y sólo el 4,5% aumentó su consumo tras hacerse miembro de una de estas asociaciones. Un estudio publicado en el ‘Journal of Drug Issues’ analiza los usuarios de estos locales en la capital catalana y concluye que la mayoría de ellos está mejor informado desde que empezó a acudir al club. Además, dejaron de comprar en el mercado negro y reciben menos multas por tenencia en la vía pública. El estudio, realizado con encuestas a 155 miembros de 20 clubes distintos de la ciudad, ofrece una muestra del perfil que tienen los miembros de estos clubes y de sus dinámicas de consumo.

Jamaica is to lobby the United States on the issue of legitimising licensed cannabis growers and processors under correspondent banking rules. Audley Shaw — Jamaica's minister of industry, commerce, agriculture, and fisheries — raised the matter in his address on plant medicine and cannabis at the Global Health Catalyst Summit at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Shaw noted that financial institutions in Jamaica and many international jurisdictions do not allow banking transactions for legally licensed medical cannabis companies because of the restrictions imposed by United States banks in their correspondent banking arrangements.

The entrance of Constellation Brands in the cannabis industry has broken the insulation around cannabis companies — it is now incumbent upon the industry to embrace and prepare for the forthcoming wave of disruptive entrants that are better capitalized, more mature and better recognized than existing licensed producers. The cannabis industry is on fire. The combined market cap for public companies is over C$8.5B, provincial governments are preparing for the legalization of adult-use and, given that most governments are pursuing some version of a government-led model, licensed producers are identifying and securing supply agreement opportunities to lock in market share and stabilize revenues.

The cannabis hype is about to come face-to-face with reality. After Canada legalizes recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, it will only take a quarter or two for clear winners and losers to emerge, according to investors and analysts who follow the sector. There may only be half a dozen major players left three years after legalization. The rest “are going to be bankrupt or out of business because their business models don’t work,” Eric Paul, from Ontario-based CannTrust, said. “This industry is far more brutal than most people understand.” So what will distinguish winners from losers? A meaningful presence in Canada’s recreational market combined with exposure to the international medical market is one key factor.

Government scientists are preparing for India’s first human clinical trials to test cannabis-based compounds on select diseases in line with what they say is a global resurgence in the medical applications of marijuana derivatives. The researchers have sought regulatory approval for a trial to evaluate these compounds on cancer patients at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. They are also planning trials in other hospitals for a difficult-to-treat form of epilepsy and a blood disorder called sickle cell anaemia. The Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) in Jammu, a unit of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research that has cultivated cannabis for research on a one-acre plot, will formulate the derivative compounds for the trials. (See also:Made-in-India drugs to be based on weed soon)

An illegal cannabis delivery start-up in the UK is generating millions of pounds in revenue less than a year after it was created, according to its founder. Dispenseroo, which unlike other online drug markets operates on the open web, has attracted thousands of customers in recent months through guerilla advertising campaigns and word-of-mouth. The unorthodox approach of shunning the dark web means the site is easily found through popular search engines like Google and DuckDuckGo, allowing it to grow tenfold in recent months. The founder, who goes by the name “S”, told The Independent that he had never sold drugs before starting Dispenseroo, and only created the service out of frustration with “archaic” cannabis laws in the UK.

Malta has been rocked by the arrest of a local doctor, Andrew Agius, for distributing cannabis mere months after the island became the first in Europe to legalise the drug. Agius, 43, was arrested on March 10 and charged with drug trafficking for importing cannabis and selling it to his patients to relieve back pain. His lawyers have argued that the product contains a small amount of THC, the active content in cannabis, and is not a prohibited drug. The arrest has thrown into confusion Malta’s much-vaunted legalisation of cannabis, with NGOs and police unsure about what is illegal and what isn’t. On 14 December 2021, the Maltese parliament passed the controversial “Authority on the Responsible Use of Cannabis” Bill, with 36 votes in favour and 27 against.

There’s a hint of disappointment in Courtney Betty’s voice when he talks about the present state of Jamaica’s legal medicinal cannabis regime. “I don’t think some of the companies coming in to do business here want to understand the social realities of Jamaica, or the real history of ganja in my country,” he said from his home in the country’s capital, Kingston. “I don’t think it is out of ignorance; I think this is just the way Western companies conduct business abroad.” By “Western” companies, Betty — the chief executive officer of Jamaican medical marijuana company Timeless Herbal Care — means Canadian. Since Jamaica legalized cannabis for medicinal cultivation and sale four years ago, a slew of Canadian pot companies have flooded the tiny island nation.

The cumulative number of authorizations for individual patients in Brazil to import nonregistered medical cannabis products reached 18,650 at the end of March, according to data of the country’s health regulator. National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) approvals to import the products have been growing rapidly in the past year, and although this route is intended to be a special access scheme for exceptional cases, Brazil has become the largest market in Latin America. Nonregistered medical cannabis products, regardless of THC content, can be imported only by individual patients after a doctor and ANVISA have signed off. The health agency does not restrict the products to only CBD, but in practice CBD represents the majority of imports.