Greece
On June 13th the Greek Government granted an installation licence to Hexo Med, a subsidiary of Hexo Corp, a Canadian-based company with facilities in Ontario and Quebec.
The new licence will allow Hexo to establish cultivation, processing and manufacturing facilities in the region of Thessaly. Hexo’s future cultivation installation, whose construction will start by the end of 2019, will cover an area of 67,000 square metres. Also, about 150 new job places will be created.
“This is a major step for HEXO as we continue to execute towards becoming a top three global cannabis company,” said Sebastien St-Louis, HEXO Corp CEO and co-founder.
By granting this new licence, Greece confirms to be a fast-growing market and one of the preferred destinations for those companies that intend to invest in Europe. It appears ever more likely that Greece will be a central player in the dynamics of the cannabis market in the Mediterranean basin.
Germany
Generally, in the last few years, European governments have legalised production and sales of cannabis extracts provided that certain criteria are met. Nevertheless, authorities still seem confused about the legal status of these kinds of products.
In last week’s roundup, we reported the most recent ruling of the Italian Supreme Court about the so-called ‘cannabis light’, its production and sales. Rather than providing clarification, however, the Court sentence highlighted the already existing grey areas.
In Germany things seem to be going on the same lines as in Italy: since the beginning of the year, lots of shops selling the legal Cannabis extract CBD have been raided down by government agents, confiscating CBD Oils and T-shirts made out of hemp.
One of these CBD distributors, CBD Onlineshop, CBD-Kaufen.com, took the matter to the BfArM, the German regulating body for medical products.
CBD-Kaufen.com’s founder C. Badde declared: “We wanted to get clarification from the government on the legal status of CBD in Germany. Getting a statement from the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices will help shop owners and distributors of CBD products in Germany understand what the law says about their business practice.”
CBD-Kaufen have published the full statement and the response from BfArM on their website, including all details. In sum, the regulating body confirmed that “The cannabis extracts you (i.e. the company) request (i.e. CBD oil/CBD isolate) may – from a narcotics legislation standpoint – only be handed over to the final consumer if the extracts are exclusively extracted from hemp (< 0.2% THC or EU variety) and the end products contain the aforementioned BfR THC reference values.”
United Kingdom
Recent changes in legislation have allowed doctors to prescribe cannabis-based therapies, benefitting patients and their families who formerly had no access to such medications if not abroad.
In January, it emerged that cannabis could be cultivated legally in the UK, when London-based Sativa Investments, the leading company in the field, was granted permission to proceed with their plans to build cultivation facilities in Wiltshire.
Now some movement has been detected in Scotland, where talks have taken place between North Ayrshire Council and the Australian firm LeafCann.
Whereas a North Ayrshire Council spokesperson declared that there is “nothing imminent or close to being agreed”, the Times, instead, claims that the Australian company has already established a UK subsidiary for the project, which therefore seems likely to take form.
Besides, these talks already represent a great step forward as regards cannabis cultivation and manufacture for medical purposes in the UK. Perhaps soon Britain will have its second legal cannabis farm.
The Stop and Chat 