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Disrupt Europe? – Switzerland Opens the Flood Gates to Ship Cannabis All Around the World
At the moment, there is an aggressive revolution going on in Switzerland. The nation is preparing for what will probably be the most disruptive recreational trial in Europe.
According to Forbes, starting on the 1st of August, Switzerland will allow medicinal marijuana patients to obtain prescriptions straight from their doctors instead of having to apply for authorization from the FOPH (Federal Office of Public Health). The new regulations effectively make medical marijuana legal in the nation and permit the export of medical marijuana for commercial purposes. However, the products can not have a THC content of more than 1%.
A lot of other important events are taking place in the meantime. In particular, the government is set to eliminate the restriction that doctors who prescribe cannabis do so only with specific permission.
The Swiss Federal Council, a seven-member administrative body that acts as the nation’s joint head of state and federal government, began deliberations on amending the nation’s Narcotics Act this past Wednesday.
Both types of marijuana, i.e., the recreational and the medical kind, have been prohibited in Switzerland since 1951. By changing the federal Narcotics Act in this manner, doctors in Switzerland will be permitted to prescribe marijuana more or less as free as they see fit. Presently, there are about 3,000 approvals handed out every year to treat patients with neurological diseases, MS, and cancer.
As a result of this, cannabis will become just a regulated narcotic as it is with Germany across the DACH border (DACH is an acronym for Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, which are in a special trading alliance). The three countries are also nearly aligned culturally, beginning with a language in common.
THE ODD TWIST FROM THE SWISS
Since we are dealing with marijuana, there is always going to be a twist in all of this, regardless of where the reform is taking place.
On a positive note, the growing, producing, and selling of medical marijuana will be approved on the federal level for the very first time. Export for commercial purposes will be allowed. The rules for imports, however, are not as clear ( though it is not likely that anyone will restrict imports of the EU-GMP medical type).
This can hardly be called revolutionary, considering that Switzerland’s nearest trading neighbor to the north, Germany, moved to do this four years ago. In fact, the first cannabis grown in Germany is only now making its way to pharmacies there. Meanwhile, growing cannabis for personal use is, of course, still prohibited.
Now, here is the weirdest, if not most suspicious twist of all.
In the coming months, Switzerland will also start an unusual recreational trial. The trial will see that pharmacies in Switzerland will be able to sell high-THC commodities to anybody who has the money to pay for it so long as they are over 21 years old.
The solution of the Swiss is not as cynical as that of the Dutch, who permitted insurers to stop paying back medical marijuana claims almost immediately after Germany amended the law to say that public insurers did so back in 2017.
That being said, the experiment is definitely taking place at a fascinating time, just on the other side of the border. The conversation by German federal lawmakers on which direction the marijuana legalization winds would blow as a result of the election in late September was one of the most crowded panels at the latest ICBC in Berlin.
Everywhere you go, cannabis reform is a sore point, including, and maybe even specifically, in Germany, which has by far the most prominent medical marijuana market in Europe. It is also the most influential. Cannabis reform is a fiery issue just about everywhere. Furthermore, it is exceedingly improbable that any reformers in Germany will pass up the chance to inform German lawmakers, that are still extremely reluctant of what the Swiss are currently doing.
EFFORTLESS ACCESS…
The continuing, hardline response of the government to any kind of cannabis reform is one of the biggest pet peeves in the DACH region (which, of course, also includes Austria). An illustration of this is the recent catastrophe that Lidl, one of the biggest retailers in the world, had in Munich.
As a matter of fact, the recent absurd prosecutions, especially in Germany where hemp tea is a hot topic, and the absence of reform are likely to drive at least some reform in Germany. The Swiss appeared poised to lead Europe, if not the DACH, in all things both recreationally and medically reform related or at least minded. Add to the equation general ease of restrictions in Switzerland, along with what appears to be an already slicker if not more reasonable plan for manufacture and cultivation, and the Swiss looked ready and willing to take the lead.
The alteration is not only welcome but also long overdue, according to Dr. Francis Scanlan, CEO of Cloud 9 Switzerland, a life sciences business that is preparing to introduce its own THC Swiss chocolate bar after breaking new ground with his product being the very first CBD edible to commence sales in Dubai.
This is a very sensible, if progressive, action in reaction to the widespread acknowledgment of cannabis as a legitimate treatment that genuinely benefits patients and has the potential to save healthcare costs while also producing tax income, according to Scanlan. “What is taking place in Switzerland for medical cannabis on prescription and our new recreational Pilot Program is very impressive and should be considered as a sensible way to regulate a plant that has been demonized around the world for far too long,” the statement reads.
BOTTOM LINE
The new regulation in Switzerland puts an end to the ban on cannabis that had existed since the year 1951. The regulation will legalize both recreational and medical marijuana completely in the country. Also, patients that are already on marijuana medication and potential medical cannabis patients will not have trouble accessing the marijuana as, under the new law, doctors will not need to seek permission before prescribing cannabis. The law also sees Switzerland being the most progressive of DACH and places them in a leading position.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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