The Cannabis Wire Daily newsletter is sent to C-Wire Plus subscribers every weekday morning at 7 a.m. Excerpts are published here later in the day. Don’t miss the full picture. Subscribe now.
An interim decision on CBD in Australia.
The Advisory Committee on Medicines and Chemicals Scheduling of the Therapeutic Goods Administration made the interim decision on CBD with regard to two proposed amendments to the scheduling of CBD.
In short, the decision is “not to amend the current Poisons Standard to exclude cannabadiol from scheduling and allow its general sale” and instead to “amend the current Poisons Standard to down schedule cannabadiol to allow greater access through a new Schedule 3 entry … to allow it to be provided by a pharmacist.”
Feedback on the interim decision will determine the final decision, which isn’t expected until 2021.
Jamaica’s Cannabis Licensing Authority wants to fix cannabis banking.
Felicia Bailey, the Cannabis Licensing Authority’s director of research development and communications, recently reiterated at a Jamaica Information Service Think Tank, that Jamaica’s banking hurdles need to be fixed.
The culprit? United States federal law, which maintains that cannabis is federally illegal, concerns international banks.
“Banks are derisking to preserve their corresponding banking relationships, mainly in the USA, but the CLA is making every effort on its part to facilitate the growth of the industry,” Bailey said. “The Ministry is doing lobbying in the international space to see where this can be facilitated. It would be difficult for us to go to the local banks, as their hands are tied, so it is more so our [Ministry] speaking with international players to see how best this can be facilitated.”
+ Read Cannabis Wire co-founder Alyson Martin’s interview with Canadian Securities Exchange director Barrington Miller about Jamaica’s banking obstacles (and more).
“They’re getting into it, as far as cannabis, but they’re restricted because of banking. And they’re following the U.S. model and they’re waiting to see what the U.S. is going to do. And during our discussion, we’re like, ‘well, you know, you can bank in Canada, and do business in Canada.’ And they’re like: that’s nice. But everyone knows where the real heart of capitalism and the really real heartbeat is, and that’s the United States,” Miller said.
Survey finds one-third of patients with Multiple Sclerosis have turned to cannabis.
A new survey of more than 3,000 people with MS, conducted by GW Pharmaceuticals, its US subsidiary Greenwich Biosciences, and the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis, found that more than 1,000 respondents (31%) used cannabis for their symptoms. Specifically, 636 said they currently use cannabis and 376 said they had in the past. The reasons for which they used included spasticity (51%), pain (44%), and sleep (38%).
These results were shared during MSVirtual2020, which is a meeting of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis and the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.
These results will also likely play into GW’s efforts to get its new product approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Already, its CBD-based product Epidiolex was approved in 2018, the first cannabis plant extract to be approved by the FDA as medicine. Now, its oral spray product, called Nabiximols, which contains both THC and CBD, as well as “minor constituents, including other cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid plant components, such as terpenes, sterols, and triglycerides,” is moving through the FDA channels for approval for “treatment of MS spasticity.” That product is known as Sativex outside of the US, and is already approved in some countries for MS.
+ As Cannabis Wire has extensively (and first) reported, Greenwich Biosciences has a significant lobbying footprint in the US, about which you can read here and here.
Oregon cannabis regulators address fire emergency dos and don’ts.
Much of the west coast of the United States is on fire right now, and that also happens to be where much of the country’s cannabis cultivation is taking place. Oregon’s cannabis regulators sent an email to stakeholders with the dos and don’ts of dealing with cannabis in the case of an evacuation order.
For example, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission writes, “DO NOT move the product to an unlicensed area.” During “wildfire evacuations, you may transfer your product to any licensee. For example: a producer can transfer to another producer for storage in an emergency evacuation.”
Another don’t: “If you transferred product to another licensee, do not request it to be transferred back until your buildings and cameras are operational, and your licensed premises can function according to OLCC rules.”
They suggest that all licensees in a “high risk area for fire” have an emergency plan. And they note that “if you are a producer planning to transfer product to another producer, make sure you know how your product will be separated from the other licensee(s) and the care it will receive.”
