New Zealand Looks to Educate Doctors on MJ
In the hopes that education leads to more use as a medicine, the government in New Zealand has asked for proposals on how to provide physicians with information on medical marijuana.
The Ministry of Health believes the resulting resource will give practitioners the information they require in make accurate decisions. Funding allocated for the project totals 50,000 New Zealand dollars, or US$33,300.
While welcoming, some understand the balance that must be kept between informing, and influencing. “Industry understand and respects health practitioner independence and does not want to create the impression of any improper influence, but in this fast-moving research space many prescribers do not have appropriate information and education on cannabis based medicines”, the words of the executive director of New Zealand Medicinal Cannabis Council (NZMCC) Sally King.
Vivo Cannabis Cuts Workforce to Stem Loss
Vivo Cannabis, a Toronto-based Canadian company, will be cutting workforce, eliminating expenditures, and re-organizing it’s leadership all in an effort to move into positive cash flow. The company operates two licenses, Canna Farms in Hope, British Columbia, and ABcann Medicinals with two facilities in Napanee, Ontario.
Forty-five employees, the majority of which from the ABcann Napanee facility, will be eliminated, an 18% cut to total workforce. The ABcann Napanee facility is reportedly being repurposed to focus on “low-cost cultivation” and extraction. Packaging and distribution will be moved to the British Columbia facility.
Vivo Cannabis will cut 18% of it’s workforce, mostly from it’s ABcann Napanee operations.
Vivo also stated that all projects were completed and they will be “monetizing noncore assets” (selling things they do not need) and halting all capital expenditures (not spending any money). In a news release the company explains, “The actions taken this week will better align the business with the demands and evolution of the cannabis market and well-position the company for future profitable growth.”
2017 saw headlines touting ABcann’s rapid expansion, the company recieving tens of millions of dollars in investents.
Medical Legalization Bill Introduced in Rwanda
Dr. Richard Sezibera presented a bill to the Rwandan parliament that would legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes, adding to the growing list of nations making efforts to nomralize cannabis.
“The objective of this bill is to contribute to the protection of the population while ensuring that drugs and psychotropic substances are exclusively available for scientific and medical purposes, Sezibera stated in an address to parliament. He insists the bill will not only comply with United Nations conventions on drugs while responding to the UN’s call for every country to have laws against illegal drugs and to control dangerous medicines, but at the same time achieve the Rwandan Health Ministry mandate to ensure that citizens have adequate access to medications.
France Still Faces Hard Opposite to Legalization
A letter printed in a Sunday edition of Le Journal du Dimanche published Oct 4, and signed by eighty members of the French parliament, makes clear their stance on cannabis legalization, “There is no ‘soft drug’. Drugs are a poison, a plague that we must fight.” The letter goes on to state, “In recent weeks, some mayors have restarted the debate by saying they are ‘for’ the legalisation of cannabis. We, MPs and Républicains senators, would like to remind them that we are strongly against this.”
This clear sentiment comes just one week after the same newspaper published a story where three MPs of the same party spoke in favor of legalization, calling it “the best way to eliminate selling and ruin drug dealers”.
But the eighty stalwart MP’s make clear in their response that is a sentiment they disagree on, “Legalising the sale of cannabis will make current dealers turn towards other, even more dangerous substances. Just because law enforcement struggles to keep up with dealers, doesn’t mean that we should legalise the practice.”
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin thinks ‘drugs are shit’, and that is a direct quote.
France has a long battle in the way of legalizing marijuana. In mid-September Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin made his opinion very clear, stating, “Drugs are shit. I cannot say as interior minister, as a politician, to parents who are fighting for their children to escape addiction to this drug, that we are going to legalise this shit.”
UKs Poster Child for Weed Finally Receives Meds
After years of campaigning by his mother, and fellow advocates, and two years after the legalization of medical cannabis in the United Kingdom, Billy Caldwell has received a lifelong prescription to National Health Service medicinal cannabis. Billy suffers from severe epilepsy, and his fight has paved the way for patient access all across the UK.
“It’s been a long time coming, I can’t quite believe it. It means so much to us, it means everything”, stated Billy’s mother Charlotte.
