Embassy HEADLINES Issue 381
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
‘Motivated by a genuine compassion’: South Australian cannabis supplier spared conviction [The Sydney Morning Herald]
An Adelaide woman spared a conviction after she supplied medicinal cannabis to people suffering from chronic pain says her case highlights the need for law reform.
Cannabis oil advocate Jenny Hallam spared conviction for supplying medicinal cannabis [ABC]
A South Australian cannabis oil distributor has been spared a conviction for providing the drug to terminally ill people, with the judge saying her actions helped rather than harmed the recipients.
Medical cannabis in the Territory: First NT patient fills their script [ABC]
The first Territory patient to ever fill a script for medical cannabis in the NT has now been approved, NT Health has confirmed. A spokeswoman for NT Health said individual patients from the Territory could have seen interstate specialists or been prescribed medicinal cannabis as part of a trial, but the Department had no record of it.
Western Australia relaxes medical cannabis laws, but adult-use legalization is still a pipe dream [The Growth Op]
Western Australia has substantially chilled out with regard to its medical cannabis rules. The general practitioners will be permitted to write prescriptions for medical cannabis, whereas they were previously obliged to refer patients for treatment with a specialist to qualify for a prescription for the drug. The Department of Health reviewed three years of prescription-related data before rendering the decision.
Road Safety Amendment (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill [Parliament of Victoria]
The leader of the Reason Party in Victoria, Fiona Patten, has presented a Bill to the Victorian Parliament to exempt drivers who are using medical marijuana from being penalised after testing positive to THC at a roadside drug testing (RDT) site, unless they are found to be impaired.
Australia’s weed market could be worth more than $11 billion [Happy Mag]
No matter how, the weed industry is now flourishing, projected to hit more than AU $2 billion a year in Australia by 2023, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. Already, cannabis is being added to salads, bath bombs and kombucha, since Australia legalised its industrial use country-wide in 2017, permitting sale of low-psychoactive hemp seed as food. And 329 pharmaceutical cannabis trademarks are lodged in Australia, followed by New-Zealand, Germany and Mexico.
NORTH AMERICA
How Vietnam veterans expanded America’s cannabis strains [Leafly]
Today’s plethora of cannabis strains, legal cannabis industry, and the tax dollars they generate, were created in part by veterans of past generations. The most influential generation of veterans may be those who served in the Vietnam War. Soldiers not only used locally-grown cannabis to cope with the stresses of war while in country; they also brought seeds home to North America, where they would become the progenitors of some of today’s most popular strains.
Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg propose easier access to pot for veterans [Greencamp]
A few front-running Democratic presidential hopefuls marked Veterans Day in the U.S. with proposals that will give veterans more access to medical cannabis. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg both unveiled proposals Monday that would allow doctors with the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to prescribe medical cannabis to those who have served in the U.S. army.
Florida Lawmakers File Bill to Offer Veterans Free Medical Cannabis Cards [Cannabis Business Times]
Florida Sen. Janet Cruz and Rep. Adam Hattersley have introduced a bill that would allow veterans to obtain and renew their medical cannabis cards at no cost. The legislation aims to offer veterans an alternative to opioids, and would be the first discount on medical cannabis in Florida, according to a local Bay News 9 report.
DEA Says Kentucky Has The Most Illicit Cannabis Plants Per Capita In The Country [High Times]
Both recreational and medical marijuana are illegal in the Bluegrass State.
Massachusetts Cannabis Regulators ‘Quarantine’ Vape Products [Ganjapreneur]
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has “quarantined” all vaporizers except for those “designed to exclusively vaporize marijuana flower for medical use patients.” The move comes less than a week after the federal Centers for Disease Control linked vitamin E acetate to the vaping-associated pulmonary injury. The substance was found in illegal and counterfeit cannabis vape pen products.
BUSINESS & POLICY
Cannabis Security: How Growers Can Prevent Internal Theft [Cannabis Business Times]
Insurance isn’t enough. Preventive measures are key to protecting crops as the workforce grows.
Missouri Proposes Cash Ban for Cannabis Company State Payments [Ganjapreneur]
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has proposed banning the state’s medical cannabis businesses from paying their taxes, fees, and penalties in cash. DHSS spokesperson Lisa Cox told 41 Action News that “large amounts of cash-handling will create challenges for state agencies and may create safety issues for medical marijuana facility employees.”
This Company Created the “World’s First” Stainless Steel Hemp Bucker [Interesting Engineering]
Iaso Goods, claims they have created the world’s first stainless steel hemp bucker. It works so smoothly. They say that it’s gentler than doing it by hand. Iaso Goods recently posted a video of their bucker in action on Reddit.
Cann Global to lower production costs and establish a medical cannabis production operation in South East Asia [Small Caps]
The venture is being developed for Cann Global to become “the first Australian company to have a full ‘seed to product’ Cannabis business established in Laos”.
Why These 3 Canadian Cannabis Giants Shouldn’t Struggle with Oversupply [Yahoo! Finance]
There has been a lot of hand-wringing lately about the alleged oversupply of cannabis in Canada, fear in many ways that is unjustified at this time. Beyond the obvious, there are a number of reasons why oversupply isn’t going to be much of an issue for major producers. Among them are the increase in retail outlets in Canada, rapidly failing small competitors, wholesale options in the near term, conversion of dried flower to CBD, inevitable decline in black market sales, sales to research labs in the U.S., and an increase in international sales.
HEALTH & SCIENCE
What women want to know: Breast cancer and cannabis [Common Citizen]
Women facing serious health challenges now have the option to use cannabis to ease the effects of treatment or the pain caused by breast cancer. Learning about the benefits of cannabis is an important step toward making informed decisions on how it can support health or improve quality of life.
‘Synthetic Marijuana’ Is A Dangerous Misnomer That People Need To Stop Using [the Fresh Toast]
Synthetic cannabinoids do not taste like cannabis, do not provide the same high, and in a frightening number of cases, cause nasty side effects, including psychosis and death.
The Race To Create Faster-Acting Edibles [Green Entrepreneur]
Move over marijuana, these six plants contain cannabinoids, too [The London Free Press]
Here are six plants that interact with the endocannabinoid system: Echinacea, Helichrysum umbraculigerum, Electric daisy, Kava, Liverwort, and cacao.
The Companies Offering DNA Testing To Find The Best Cannabis For You [Benzinga]
Today, if you have $200 and a mailing address, you can obtain a personalized DNA test that will analyze your unique genetic characteristics and explain what type of cannabis best fits your genetic profile.
Cannabis could help alleviate depression and suicidality among people with PTSD [University of British Columbia]
The study, published today in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, is the first to document the relationships between PTSD, cannabis use, and severe mental health outcomes in a sample representative of the population.
EVENTS
GreenLight: Saving Lives at any Cost
In cinemas from 10 October. You can also see it at the Nimbin Medican workshop 26-27 October. In Australia, two men work to provide the last hope of relief — and in some cases cure — for thousands suffering chronic and terminal illnesses. They provide black market medicinal cannabis for people who have nowhere else to turn.
Rethink Reform [Greens]
Greens are hosting a public forums about our drug laws in NSW. Come along to find out why the war on drugs has failed, what evidence-based public policy that prioritises harm reduction looks like, and what we can do to move towards decriminalising people who use drugs.
Annual General Meetings
Nimbin Hemp Embassy AGM 2019
11am on Saturday 16 November 2019 at the Hemp Embassy, Nimbin
MardiGrass Organizing Body AGM 2019
12pm on Saturday 16 November 2019 at the Hemp Embassy, Nimbin
Australian HEMP Party AGM 2019
2pm on Saturday 16 November 2019 at the Hemp Embassy, Nimbin
Australian Industrial Hemp Conference
MCIA Medical Cannabis 2020
3rd to 4th March 2020, Melbourne
FUNDRAISERS/CAMPAIGNS/PETITIONS/SURVEYS
URGENT REVIEW of the medical cannabis delivery system model [MCUA]
Take the necessary steps to initiate an Independent Inquiry by the Australian Advisory Council on the Medicinal Use of Cannabis (AACMC) to review the current delivery system with the view creating a fairer, more affordable delivery model in consultation with the end users.
Scott Morrison (ScoMo): Legalise Recreational Cannabis [Cannabis Club Australia]
Allow Australian adults to grow and consume cannabis legally.
Medical Cannabis Access – Patient Satisfaction Survey [Medical Cannabis Users Association of Australia, MCUA]
MCUA is keen to get feedback on how the government’sMedical Cannabis delivery system is working for Australian patients 3 years after it was implemented. This survey is only open to Australian residents who have have qualified for approval by the TGA under the SAS. We have suggested to the Federal government that a Review / Inquiry be held into the current pharmaceutical delivery system and we want collate the information we get here to use it to demonstrate how well the pharmaceutical model is working for the end user ie the patients. We thank you for participating and appreciate your support.
HELP GROW OUR CANNABIS CAMPAIGN [The Greens]
The ACT took one small step towards legalising cannabis, and already the rapid News Corp media is after them. If we’re ever going to win this fight and #JustLegaliseIt, we need to take them on.
Next stop Canberra – we’re taking the fight to Parliament! [United in Compassion]
When Barnaby Joyce recently showed just how ignorant he was about medicinal cannabis, comparing it to “pulling bongs”, I realised something: the majority of Australians support medicinal cannabis. It’s the politicians who need to be convinced.
Inquiry into drug driving reform [Enpsychedelia]
The National Drug Driving Working Group clearly states that drug driving laws are specifically a driving offense and not a drug offense. Despite this, people who are not impaired, but may still have trace amounts of one of three prescribed substances in their bodily fluid, are frequently charged with a road offense. There is a significant economic and social burden from these unjustified infringements.