The Cannabis Wire Daily newsletter is sent to subscribers every weekday morning at 7 a.m. Excerpts are published here later in the day. Don’t miss the full picture. Subscribe now.
Australia to require all imported medical cannabis to follow GMP.
Regulators in Australia, where medical cannabis is legal, are rolling out new regulations for medical cannabis products starting this March. While there are licensed producers in the country, dozens of global companies import products, too, including Canopy Growth and Tilray.
One change in particular will affect these importers: a GMP requirement. (Which, it’s worth noting, is already required for local producers.)
It reads: “medicinal cannabis products imported to Australia” must “be manufactured in accordance with specified Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) suitable for medicinal products.”
Other changes will be related to cannabis packaging and labeling, among other tweaks.
American Nurses Association reiterates cannabis position.
The ANA Ethics Advisory Board released its “ANA Position Statement: Therapeutic Use of Marijuana and Related Cannabinoids.” The organization has expressed support for therapeutic use of cannabis since the 90s.
The statement reads, “Marijuana and its derivatives continue to be used to alleviate disease-related symptoms and side effects. The findings of anecdotal and controlled studies regarding the efficacy for patient use are mixed. Current federal regulations impede the research necessary to evaluate and determine the therapeutic use of marijuana and related cannabinoids. This position statement does not extend to the current debate on the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes. The goal is to develop an evidence-based approach to its use in the treatment of disease and symptom management.”
A household name in lab equipment dives headfirst into cannabis.
Thomas Scientific, a company that has sold lab equipment and instruments since 1900, has launched a cannabis team and business unit “committed to serving laboratories, researchers, and manufacturers operating within the growing industry,” the company announced.
“We at Thomas Scientific are here to serve every step of the cannabis workflow – from cultivation, to extraction, to analytical testing – and are proud of the advancements being made in this market,” Shawn Williams, director of sales on the cannabis team, said in a statement.
“There is so much untapped potential in this single plant and along with our supplier partners, we’re very excited to support our customers as discoveries are made.”
