Marijuana Business Magazine July 2018

¬NDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS Canada’s Ruling Party Nixes Controversial Amendments to Cannabis Bill Canada’s federal government rejected all the Senate’s amendments to the pending marijuana law that industry sources said would make it harder for legal recreational marijuana to overtake the black market. The Senate’s version of the Cannabis Act was approved with almost four dozen amendments. While the ruling Liberal government accepted the bulk of the changes, the most controversial ones were unlikely to make the final bill. Amendments the Liberal government rejected include requiring parliamentary approval of new cannabis prod- ucts; making public the names of shareholders who hold more than 5% of any class of shares of a cannabis com- pany; giving regulators the authority to cap THC potency for certain products and allowing provinces to ban home cultivation. The House of Commons was expected to vote on the updated act, with the controversial amendments removed. Then it heads back to the Senate. Cultivation Applicants in Canada Soar, but Cannabis Shortage Looms The number of applicants to cultivate cannabis in Can- ada rose 150% in the first quarter of 2018, as the industry ramps up for legalization late this summer. Health Canada received 74 cultivation applications in the first four months of 2018, bringing the total number of What's HAPPEN¬NG National & ¬nternational News Developments ( ) applications in the pipeline to more than 500; 30 applied for cultivation licenses during the same period in 2017. The newest applicants aren’t expected to have product on store shelves until 2019 at the earliest because, on average, it takes 341 days after a company is awarded a cultivation license to get a permit to sell. Getting a cultiva- tion license can take from six months to years. The lack of large-scale, fully licensed capacity in Canada could exacerbate a marijuana shortage, depend- ing on consumer demand from provincially regulated outlets, according to Hamish Sutherland, CEO of White Sheep, a commercial operator and strategic investor in cannabis assets. Zimbabwe Going ‘Back to the Drawing Board’ on Medical Marijuana Law Just one month after enacting a medical cannabis pro- gram, Zimbabwe hit pause to rectify multiple issues with the original law. The country’s MMJ program was put on hold over com- pliance issues with various United Nations treaties as well as domestic accessibility issues. Zimbabwe’s updated regulations will be unveiled within six months, according to an industry source who requested anonymity because he is not permitted to speak with the media. Zimbabwe’s announcement in May made it only the second country in Africa to lay the groundwork for an MMJ industry. The original law defined how companies could become licensed producers and ship medical cannabis to “author- ized recipients,” but it did not establish how patients could become authorized within the country. The new law is expected to address that gap. No details are available on whether imports or exports would be permitted or how local MMJ consumption would be regulated. 18 • Marijuana Business Magazine • July 2018