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European cannabis flower monograph pre-published, “given the exceptionally high interest.”
The European Pharmacopoeia Commission adopted the new monograph on Cannabis flower at the 176th session meeting in June. The final text will be published in January.
But, “given the exceptionally high interest from stakeholders in having access to the new text as soon as possible,” the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare decided to “pre-publish” and make the text available on their website.
The monograph serves as guidance for the definition of medical cannabis flower.
The new text covers the “herbal drug defined as the dried, whole or fragmented, fully developed female inflorescences of Cannabis sativa L,” an EDQM announcement about the text read.
The new monograph is based on data and information from a “number of national authorities concerning the use of the herbal drug in their jurisdictions.” The monograph also includes requirements for “tests for foreign matter, arsenic, cadmium and lead for cases in which the herbal drug is to be prescribed to patients.”
Here, the U.S. Pharmacopeia proposed a cannabis monograph in Sept. 2022, and subsequently opened and closed a 90-day comment period.
+ More: The EDQM will host a webinar on Dec. 14 to present the new monograph to interested parties and to “help them prepare for implementation of the text.”
Canada takes stock of its legalization rollout.
A panel appointed by Health Canada to assess outcomes of the country’s adult use law, which went into effect in 2018, has released its first report.
To put this into context: this is the first major assessment—involving hundreds of stakeholders, including from the U.S.—out of one of the first countries in the world (second only to Uruguay) to legalize cannabis for adults. In other words, this is going to be referenced around the globe for years to come.
This report, titled Legislative Review of the Cannabis Act: What We Heard Report, however, is not the final report. It captures only the “first phase,” the panel wrote in an opening message, which involved stakeholder outreach to capture perspectives from December 2022 to June 2023.
For the “second phase,” the panel “will re-engage stakeholders in multi-sectoral roundtables and host other discussions to gain a deeper understanding and fill any knowledge gaps from our first phase.” After this, they plan to table in Parliament a final report that includes recommendations, sometime before March.
The overall takeaway in this first report is “that while there continues to be strong support for the underlying public health and safety objectives of the Act, opinions are divided on how best to achieve them,” the panel wrote.
They continued: “We believe that it is important to clearly set out these disagreements. These can point us to areas where further research needs to be conducted to help develop an improved cannabis framework for Canada.”
The panel also emphasized that “it will likely take many years to understand the full impact of” legalization, as this assessment began just four years into the adult use rollout.
Many of the perspectives in the report, which is 119 pages, are familiar: public health officials want increased efforts around youth use, industry folks want fewer regulations so they can compete with unlicensed operators, disadvantaged groups want a leg up, etc.
The full report, however, is worth reading in full. It’s structured around eight priority areas, including: public health; youth; First Nations, Inuit, and Métis; home cultivation; economic, social, and environment impacts; adult access; deterring criminal activity and displacing the illicit cannabis market; and access to cannabis for medical purposes.
Connecticut: Adult use sales continue to climb, and prices are coming down, too.
Adult use shops in the state sold $14.4 million worth of products in September—376,035 products to be exact, according to new data released by the Department of Consumer Protection. This is up from $14 million in August from 354,700 products.
Prices appear to be coming down too, as the average product price in September was $38.37, down from $39.49 in August.
Flower sales continue to lead, followed by vape cartridges.
