Although South Africa accounts for a tiny percentage of global cannabis trade, it is an important part of the bigger picture, with cannabis markets in Europe, the UK, Israel and Australia. Cannabiz Africa reports on international developments affecting the African cannabis and hemp sector as well as consumer market trends of interest to South African operators.
A US man has been jailed for his part in a huge clandestine operation which distributed popular cereal and candy brands infused with THC and butane hash oil. Prosecutors said that most normal drug traffickers wouldn’t be this reckless in trying to set up an international distribution network.
A bold US initiative to twin hemp batteries and electric vehicles has come to nought with a Trump freeze on ‘green funding’. Wisconsin Battery Company had hoped its hemp carbon batteries would outperform lithium-based alternatives, but has run into financial difficulties before being able to put this to the test.
Over 20% of North Americans have consumed cannabis over the past year. The comparable figure in West Africa is 10% and in South Africa 5%! The latest UN figures show that cannabis use has increased 34% worldwide over the past decade.
A science experiment intended to study how cannabis seeds fare in space—in hopes of one day planting the crop on the moon or even Mars—failed last week when a capsule carrying the payload crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
In a significant shift, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health has officially restricted cannabis use exclusively to medical purposes, rolling out new regulations aimed at preventing misuse and ensuring its benefits are channeled solely for health.
Can Europe scale up to 5 million medical cannabis patients? That was one of the main discussion points at the recent Cannabis Europa Conference in London (pictured above) which found the medical cannabis industry in Europe is thriving but science and medical training is lagging far behind.
Cannabis in the workplace will increasingly become an issue with the rising number of medical cannabis patients in South Africa. One of the potential dilemmas is the balancing the rights of an employee to privacy around their ailments and medication against the obligations of the employer to provide a safe working environment for all workers.
Virgin Atlantic has denied claims it’s providing THC-infused sodas to passengers on select US flights after cannabis beverage company Drippy put out a promotional campaign claiming it had partnered with the airline.
Australia’s health regulators have announced new official guidelines for medical cannabis prescriptions following widespread abuse of the system. It’s been revealed that some practitioners have issued over 10 000 prescriptions in just six months.
A cannabis worker has died after falling off a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigration raid in California. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles turned up at two locations operated by Glass House Farms near Los Angeles as part of the Trump administration’s drive to deport illegal migrant workers.
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