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12th December 2024
Cannabis – recreational
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Global business and regulatory news covering the cannabis industry
Daily regulatory updates of legal changes in the cannabis sector, including monthly compilations
17th December 2024
- EU: Yesterday (16th December), the European Council formally adopted the proposal for a regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste (a revision of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive). The proposal aims to make packaging easier to reuse and recycle, to reduce unnecessary packaging and waste, and to promote the use of recycled content. The regulation is expected to affect packaging requirements for cannabis and hemp-derived products and will next be published in the EU’s official journal. The regulation will be applied 18 months after the date of entry into force.
13th December 2024
- Germany: Following recent announcement by the Federal Office of Agriculture and Food (BMEL) about issuing regulations on cannabis research projects, the Berlin districts of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Neukölln announced that they plan to start selling recreational cannabis through several specialist stores by summer 2025 through a scientific model project. The participants need to reside in the districts and meet some necessary health requirements. The products will be sold in selected sale outlets and will last for five years.
13th December 2024
- Switzerland: The city of Bern has extended the service contract for the recreational cannabis pilot project study from 2024 to mid-2027. Since April 2024, 700 participants have been able to purchase cannabis products in selected pharmacies as part of the study, which aims to examine the effects of a combined sales and counselling intervention on users’ behaviour and health. The scientific findings are intended to contribute to the discussion about a future cannabis policy.
12th December 2024
- Japan: The law criminalising recreational cannabis use and legalising medicinal cannabis products enters into force today. Medicines will require approval before becoming available to patients. Following a public consultation launched in May, the government has issued guidance on THC limits for CBD products.
12th December 2024
- Germany: The Federal Office of Agriculture and Food (BMEL) has issued regulations on cannabis research projects, which will examine research applications of cannabis consumption and industrial hemp. The focus of these investigations is to better protect young people, reduce activity in the black market and organised crime, and increase consumer protection through lower-risk forms of consumption. Applications can be submitted on the authority’s website. The BMEL emphasised that this is not the “second pillar” of cannabis legalisation, which would introduce cannabis specialist stores, as that is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health.
11th December 2024
- Netherlands: The Dutch government has announced that the next phase (experimental phase) of the Controlled Cannabis Supply Chain Experiment, which aims to investigate whether a regulated chain of production, distribution and sale of cannabis is possible, will start on 7th April 2025. In the experimental phase, coffee shops in the ten participating municipalities will only sell regulated products. This phase should last four years.
4th December 2024
- Spain: Daily consumption of cannabis is decreasing in Spain, while occasional use increases. According to the Ministry of Health’s 2024 Survey on Alcohol and Other Drugs in Spain (EDADES), cannabis is the most widely used drug in the country, having been consumed at least once by 43.7% of the population. Another finding is that 12.6% of 15- to 64-year-olds said they had used cannabis at least once in the previous 12 months – a higher percentage than in 2022, when it amounted to 12.6%. Daily consumption of cannabis is 2.5% of the population in 2024, while it was 2.8% in 2022.
4th December 2024
- South Africa: Legislation for the legal trade of cannabis is likely to be tabled in Parliament early next year as a part of initiatives to regulate the industry, according to the press. The government’s plan has been moved to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Competition due a strategy review at the Cabinet level. Among the plans to regulate the industry are revised levels of THC allowed in hemp and a medical cannabis revision. It is not clear whether recreational cannabis will be part of the planned changes.
3rd December 2024
- US - Federal: The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has begun hearings to address the Biden administration’s proposal to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). According to a DEA advisory released on 26th November, the primary goal was to organise the procedural groundwork for addressing the merits of rescheduling. A key part of yesterday’s hearing was about determining witnesses’ availability for subsequent hearings featuring witness testimony. DEA administrative law judge John Mulrooney said witness testimonies are likely to begin in mid-January.
28th November 2024
- EU: During the parliamentary debate over the proposal for a revision of the 2009 Council recommendation on smoke-free environments, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), which currently holds 78 out of 720 seats in the European Parliament, proposed including cannabis in the EU goal to become tobacco-free by 2040, thereby proposing to ban cannabis across the European Union by 2040. The group alleges that smoking is still the most used method of consuming cannabis, which poses serious health risks. The group also rejects any regulation of recreational cannabis, saying it “gives rise to the concern that cannabis is still necessarily supplied from the illegal market”.
28th November 2024
- Philippines: The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) are open to reclassifying cannabis as a less dangerous drug, according to senator Ronald dela Rosa, who is also the proponent of the budget for the two agencies, press reports. However, dela Rosa also said he believed the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, Republic Act 9165, would need to be amended first because under it, cannabis is still classified as a prohibited substance. Further reclassification by the DDB can only proceed if cannabis is not included in the annex of the act, dela Rosa said. He added that the DDB and PDEA are in “full support” of efforts to reclassify cannabis as a low-risk drug.
28th November 2024
- Costa Rica: The Constitutional Court has declared a bill regulating recreational cannabis unconstitutional, press reports. According to the court, the bill conflicts with international treaties signed by the country, such as the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the Vienna Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.
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