420 with CNW – UK Doctors to Start Prescribing Cannabis in November

Doctors in the UK (Wales, Scotland and England) will soon start prescribing cannabis for their patients who have conditions that can be improved by this substance.

This announcement was made by the UK Home Secretary, Sajid Javid. He stated that cannabis would see its status changed from a schedule 1 substance (substances with no therapeutic value but having a high likelihood of being abused) to a schedule 2 controlled substance.

That change would allow doctors to prescribe cannabis-products for those patients who would benefit from such derivatives (CBD oil, for example).

However, cannabis would still be controlled since its new status would still regard it as something that has a high potential for being abused.

The Home Secretary said as much when he reiterated that adult use of cannabis would not be accepted and no patient would be allowed to smoke cannabis as a way of treating his or her condition.

The new regulations that will amend the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 will come into force on November 1.

The amendments come hot on the heels of prominent cases in which several kids were denied the right to use cannabis oil as a way of controlling their epileptic seizures. Those cases were controversial because cannabis oil had been found to be beneficial for people suffering from refractory epilepsy.

The new regulations will permit three avenues through which a person can consume cannabis-based products. The first way is when the patient gets a prescription from a doctor to get a medical product made from cannabis.

The second way through which one can consume a cannabis product is when such a product is being used in an investigational program (clinical study) into which the user has been enrolled.

The third and final way through which one can consume a cannabis product is when such a product has been approved for sale by the relevant regulators. This category includes medicinal cannabis products that have been approved as over the counter products for which a prescription isn’t required.

The regulatory changes by the UK government comes at a time when an expert committee of the World Health Organization is set to meet in November to review the classification of marijuana as a schedule 1 controlled substance. That meeting also comes at a time when Canada has just made history as the first G8 member state to legalize recreational marijuana.

These positive actions in the cannabis industry are pieces of good news to Koios Beverage Corp. (CSE: KBEV) (OTC: KBEVF) and Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) who are convinced about the benefits that this product can bring.

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420 with CNW – American Cannabis Producers Fear Canadian Industry Dominance

Cannabis industry players in the U.S. are concerned that the stubborn insistence on prohibition by the federal government will give Canadian producers a chance to dominate the marijuana industry.

These sentiments were voiced by Derek Peterson, the CEO of marijuana firm Terra Tech based in California. He revealed that industry players in the U.S. are constrained by many factors which put a damper on their growth and activities.

First, cannabis cannot cross state lines since marijuana is still outlawed at the federal level. This restriction means that producers must operate at low capacity just for the market within the state where they are licensed to operate.

Secondly, the players in the marijuana industry cannot access funding from major banks since the banks fear federal repercussions resulting from doing business with an industry that is considered illegal. Marijuana companies therefore face funding challenges each time they want to expand or conduct expensive product research. In contrast, Canadian firms are trading publicly and amassing capital.

The third impediment is that Customs and Border Protection has vowed to deny entry to any marijuana industry investors. This has deterred some foreign nationals who may have wished to put their money in U.S. cannabis companies.

These shortcomings have given a chance to Canadian companies to spread their operations to the U.S. For example, Tilray was recently permitted to export marijuana extract capsules for use during a study on the impact of cannabis on essential tremor. This was after the researchers convinced the DEA that such products weren’t available locally.

Such inroads are likely to grow over time since Canada has had a head start due to the forward-looking regulatory framework that was passed in Canada upon the legalization of medical cannabis years back and the impending decriminalization of adult use of marijuana a few days from now.

Private firms were allowed to participate in the industry right from its legalization, and that private enterprise has permitted Canada to be a world leader in this young industry. In contrast, the U.S. has for long allowed only Mississippi University to hold the sole license for cannabis cultivation until states started decriminalizing marijuana and licensing their own producers.

The U.S. is therefore having to play catch up with Canada, but the federal prohibitionist stance still limits how quickly the domestic industry can grow since the players are fragmented and can only operate in small jurisdictions. The large U.S. market will only be exploited fully for rapid growth once cannabis is legalized at the federal level. That decriminalization will allow firms like Koios Beverage Corp. (CSE: KBEV) (OTC: KBEVF) and Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) to put all their energies in capturing the massive potential market across the nation.

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420 with CNW – Malaysia Considers Legalizing Medical Marijuana

A young man aged 29 was arrested, charged and sentenced to death for being found with a few liters of cannabis oil in Malaysia. Cannabis on all its forms is illegal in this Asian country. However, the uproar about that conviction and sentence has forced the cabinet of that country to have a discussion about decriminalizing marijuana for medical purposes. Muhammad Lukman, the young man in question, had argued in court that the cannabis oil and other products were for helping patients suffering from cancer and other terminal diseases.

Change.org drafted a petition calling for Lukman to be freed and that petition has so far been signed by more than 60,000 people.

Xavier Jayakumar, the Minister in charge of Water, Land and Natural Resources in Malaysia revealed that he was comfortable with voting to legalize medical cannabis if it could help patients in the Asian country.

However, he was well aware that convincing his cabinet colleagues to decriminalize marijuana would be no small feat since opinions are strongly against cannabis. Matters aren’t helped by the fact that there is limited research in that country showing the medicinal benefits of marijuana.

The task of changing the legislation of cannabis is likely to be harder given that the health ministry in that country doesn’t believe that cannabis has any medical value. The views of that ministry are likely to carry a lot of weight when that matter is formally tabled for consideration.

This prohibitionist stance by the Ministry of Health in Malaysia is in stark contrast to the counterpart Ministry in Thailand where pressure is being piled on the government to pass legislation allowing cannabis to be used for medical purposes. Such a decision would also boost the economy since Thailand can produce and export the product around the world following the lead of Canada.

It should be remembered that no country on the Asian continent has legalized medical or recreational cannabis. In fact, the possession, trafficking and consumption of cannabis can attract the death sentence in most Southeast Asian countries. Singapore and Indonesia are notable for routinely handing out capital sentences to anyone found using cannabis.

It therefore remains to be seen whether the cabinet’s interest in medical cannabis will mature into a law regulating the use of marijuana for medical purposes, or whether that interest will fizzle out once Mohammad Lukman is spared the death penalty since the cabinet has already agreed to spare him that punishment. The discussions going on in Malaysia could be of interest to companies like GreenBox POS, LLC (OTC: GRBX) and Kolos Beverages Corp. (CSE: KBEV) (OTC: KBEVF) that would relish the chance to operate in a wider market.

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