Surprise Move as Japan’s Health Ministry Gives the Nod to Legalizing Medical Cannabis An expert panel studying cannabis issues in Japan has recommended that the country allow for imports of cannabis products for medical use. This comes as some surprise as the Japanese government has traditionally been anti-cannabis, and this could open new doors for African exporters. Hemp today 22/10/19, 06:00 [object Object] INTERNATIONAL BREAKING NEWS PREVIOUS NEXT Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!

Previous Next South African Law Firms Well Poised to Ride the Wave of African Cannabis Legalization Home African News South African News International News All News Marketplace Business News More Cannabiz Africa 13 September 2024 at 14:00:00 The South African legal sector has significant experience in dealing with cannabis legislation and is well-positioned to benefit from the regulatory reform that is taking place in the rest of the continent. [object Object] Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing! What Sets Us Apart ? Cannabiz Africa is the leading B2B news platform for the continent's cannabis industry, connecting you directly with key stakeholders. With over 4,000 unique monthly users and a growing audience of 1,500 engaged Newsline subscribers, we provide unmatched visibility for your brand. Advertise with us today to reach the heart of the industry! Click here, to advertise your brand, product and or service

CANNABIS INDUSTRY BREAKING NEWS US-Based King Kong Organics Finally Set to Open Rwanda Cannabis Oil Extraction Facility KKOG’s CEO Rene Joseph says the multi-million dollar cannabis processing facility is 70% complete and will open in September. The company has a five year license from the Rwanda Development Board, which also invested capital in the project. The primary aim is to export cannabis oils internationally and KKOG says it intends expanding its African footprint. Zablon Oyugi, Farmers Review Africa 18 August 2024 at 10:00:00 This report from Farmers Review Africa, published on 14 August 2024 Rwanda is set to have its cannabis production facility in September this year following the latest update by the contractors that the completion date has been pushed to give time for a new access road to the site be constructed. According to Rene Joseph, the CEO at King Kong Organics (KKOG), a subsidiary of KKOG Global, which became the first company to secure a five-year license from the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to operate cannabis production, the completion of the facility was scheduled for May but has been pushed to September. “We are at 70 per cent to complete the facility set up and we expect to finish by the first week of September,” he told The New Times. KKOG announced an initial investment of $10 million for machinery, facility construction, land acquisition fees, contractor payments, and the import of genetically modified cannabis seeds, among other expenses. Joseph said that the production process, including the extraction of cannabis oils primarily for export, will be made possible through a $3 million investment from the Rwandan government. KKOG aims to produce at least 5,000 kilograms of cannabis per hectare, with the plants maturing within four to six months. The RDB allocated approximately 35 hectares in Musanze District to five potential investors, granting each five hectares, with an additional 10 hectares designated for communal use and security. KKOG in its own words: KKOG is a pharmaceutical grade cannabis cultivation and extraction company. KKOG is currently building a globally diversified and integrated supply chain for high quality cannabis (THC & CBD). Cultivation and Extraction is currently in production in Africa and farming operation are being further established across a number of countries. KKOG has numerous applications, and undertaken negotiations with government partners in many Africa Countries, and is actively obtaining license to cultivate, extract and export cannabis. KKOH intends to become the largest volume producer of wholesale cannabis oils globally. KKOG research labs are currently in R&D creating leading formulations for cannabis related products in multiple sectors. Synergy Wellness: Building a Medical Cannabis Eco-System from the Ground Up Read Moving on Up! Cheeba’s Higher Certificate is Africa’s First Officially Recognized Cannabis Qualification Read Presidential Cannabis Advisor: ‘The Industry is in a Free-for-All and We Are Dealing With a Crisis of Illegality’ Read NEXT PREVIOUS Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!

Previous Next Kenya Should Have a Serious Discussion on Cannabis Legalization Now Election Dust is Settling Home African News South African News International News All News Marketplace Business News More Patrick Gathara for Al Jazeera 14 August 2022 at 07:00:00 The likes of presidential wannabe Professor George Wajackoyah should not be allowed to turn the legalisation debate into a political joke as incoming election results point to a tight race between Deputy President William Ruto and ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga. [object Object] Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing! What Sets Us Apart ? Cannabiz Africa is the leading B2B news platform for the continent's cannabis industry, connecting you directly with key stakeholders. With over 4,000 unique monthly users and a growing audience of 1,500 engaged Newsline subscribers, we provide unmatched visibility for your brand. Advertise with us today to reach the heart of the industry! Click here, to advertise your brand, product and or service

CANNABIS INDUSTRY BREAKING NEWS KZN Solidifies Partnership with Opulance Pharmaceuticals in Granting 664 Industrial Cannabis Licenses to Legacy Growers Verulam-based Opulance Pharmaceuticals’ CEO Duran Govender is entering the cannabis value chain in a big way with a public-private partnership with the KZN provincial government. Hemp Today 29 December 2023 at 08:00:00 This report first appeared in Hemp Today on 27 December 2023. Several hundred farmers have received licenses to produce hemp in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), and officials say the growers will get training in the crop. A total of 664 licenses were recently granted by the KZN Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD). The permits authorize the farmers to grow, store and transport cannabis with less than 0.2% THC – the dividing line between hemp and marijuana in South Africa. Public-private pact A public-private partnership between the provincial government and Opulence Pharmaceuticals was announced to facilitate the growth of the cannabis industry in the province, and to explore export potential. Little is known about Opulence Pharmaceuticals, which was established in 2018 to operate in the medical marijuana and CBD sectors. The company is located in Verulam, KZN. Duran Govender, the company’s CEO, said his vision is to create sustainable jobs and control the value chain in industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis. DALRD and the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs will work with the company in a skills and knowledge transfer program. Technical support The cannabis licenses will allow farmers access to technology through the Analytical Lab at the Cedara Agricultural Training Institute. Local businesses that will be providing services to permit recipients were also granted R300,000 (South African rands) (~$15,000) each. Services include processing, setting up growing tunnels and providing lab equipment, packaging, testing, and marketing. Officials said they have plans to establish at least six hemp processing plants. DARD has also set aside R47 million ($2.5 million) for cannabis research, and has allocated R10 million ($500,000) for direct farmer assistance. “In the past Africans were being punished severely for cannabis and our parents could not trade,” said Siboniso Duma, a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Executive Council for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs. “People were killed defending the sovereignty of this herb but now our people are receiving licences and permits.” ‘ Food basket’ of SA KwaZulu-Natal is considered to be “the food basket province” of South Africa, with reliable rainfall and fertile soils; 17% of the province’s land is arable, with 7.5% classified as high potential. The province produces 90% of South Africa’s total output of sugarcane; KZN farmers also grow fruits & vegetables, maize, peanuts and soybeans, and raise livestock. # Synergy Wellness: Building a Medical Cannabis Eco-System from the Ground Up Read Moving on Up! Cheeba’s Higher Certificate is Africa’s First Officially Recognized Cannabis Qualification Read Presidential Cannabis Advisor: ‘The Industry is in a Free-for-All and We Are Dealing With a Crisis of Illegality’ Read NEXT PREVIOUS Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!

Previous Next Battle for Bophelo: Mojela Appoints Legal Counsel in UK to Challenge Her Firing from Akanda Home African News South African News International News All News Marketplace Business News More Brett Hilton-Barber 5 September 2022 at 04:00:00 Former Akanda chairperson Louise Mojela is sticking to her guns that she liquidated subsidiary Bophelo in order to prevent funds being fraudulently diverted from Lesotho to Portugal. Not so, says Akanda CEO Tej Virk, who says Mojela is bent on revenge after she lost the confidence of shareholders. [object Object] Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing! What Sets Us Apart ? Cannabiz Africa is the leading B2B news platform for the continent's cannabis industry, connecting you directly with key stakeholders. With over 4,000 unique monthly users and a growing audience of 1,500 engaged Newsline subscribers, we provide unmatched visibility for your brand. Advertise with us today to reach the heart of the industry! Click here, to advertise your brand, product and or service

CANNABIS INDUSTRY BREAKING NEWS Morocco’s Illegal Cannabis Farmers Emerge Boldly From the Shadows Under New Regulatory Regime Morocco's partial legalisation of cannabis has seen the number of legal farmers rocket from 430 to 3 000 in just a year. This has seen the area under cannabis cultivation increase tenfold to 2 700 ha as the country cautiously reform the regulatory landscape. AFP 10 August 2024 at 09:00:00 Content for this report has been drawn from France24, published on 27 July 2024. Morocco sought to combat drug trafficking and improve the farmers' livelihoods, supporting up to 120,000 families in the region whose economy relies on cannabis which has been grown there for centuries. In its first harvest of legal, low-potency cannabis last year, the country reported an output of 296 tonnes, according to ANRAC, Morocco's cannabis regulating agency. For Abdesselam Ichou, who began growing cannabis legally as part of Morocco's legalisation of the plant for medicinal and industrial uses, it was "a record harvest of almost eight tonnes on one hectare (2.5 acres)" that provided him with a steadier income than illegal cultivation. He said he sold the crop at 80 dirhams ($8) per kilogram to give a gross revenue of $64,000. The Moroccan firm that bought it decided to invest in two more hectares for the next harvest. 'Right path' In 2023, Ichou was the only farmer in his village to legally grow cannabis. This year, he said, there are about 70. In Chefchaouen, Hoceima, and Taounate -- the Rif provinces where non-recreational cannabis cultivation is legal -- the number of farmers went from 430 to 3,000 in a year, according to ANRAC. The surface area of legal cannabis crops increased almost tenfold, according to the agency, going from 286 hectares in 2023 to 2,700 hectares in 2024. But that hardly compares to the 55,000 hectares which official figures say were grown illegally in 2019. A crackdown on the underground trade saw annual revenues from illegal cannabis trafficking decrease from around $540 million in the early 2000s to almost $350 million in 2020, according to official figures. At first, there was a lot of apprehension," said Said El Gueddar, 47, another legal cannabis grower, who is expecting his next harvest in October. "But little by little it waned, because ultimately legalisation is the right path to follow. El Gueddar, who belongs to a cooperative, added that he has "a lot of hope, because it can only be better than living in the precariousness of illegality." After relying on imported seeds for the legal cultivation, beldia, a local variety of the plant that's drought-resilient, will be harvested for the first time in August. With Morocco hit by a six-year drought, "beldia is a major asset for us," said Ichou. Along with dozens of other farmers, he created a cooperative dedicated to growing the local variety on more than 200 hectares. "We want to promote it as much as possible," he said. 'Attractive sector' For industrial cannabis use, ANRAC has issued more than 200 permits, including about 60 in cannabis processing, 20 for seed importation, and around 30 for cannabis export. Aziz Makhlouf seized the chance by creating Biocannat, a cannabis processing factory employing 24 people in Bab Berred, southeast of Chefchaouen. "There are quite a few opportunities with cannabis," said Makhlouf. "It's an attractive sector." Since the start of the year, his factory has transformed around 30 tonnes of cannabis into different products -- CBD resin, oil, flour, creams, candies, and food supplements. But while cannabis regulation helps to "slowly build a reliable and resilient economy", it remains challenging "to absorb the illegal sector as of now because it has its market", said Mohamed El Guerroudj, the head of ANRAC. Legal growers could eventually make a 12-percent turnover compared to four percent on the illegal market, according to official studies. For now, the kingdom's priority is to help improve the lives of the population who rely economically on the plant, he told AFP. Treating "cannabis production as a normal agricultural sector," Guerroudj said, will enable them to emerge "out of the shadows... towards the light." # Synergy Wellness: Building a Medical Cannabis Eco-System from the Ground Up Read Moving on Up! Cheeba’s Higher Certificate is Africa’s First Officially Recognized Cannabis Qualification Read Presidential Cannabis Advisor: ‘The Industry is in a Free-for-All and We Are Dealing With a Crisis of Illegality’ Read NEXT PREVIOUS Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!

CANNABIS INDUSTRY BREAKING NEWS As War Clouds Loom, Lebanon Looks to Legalize Hash to Raise Cash A 2020 McKinsey Report proposed that Lebanon legalize hash for medical and export purposes, saying that it could raise US$1 bllion for the fragile Middle Eastern country. Now, with the increasing prospect of a full-blown regional war, there is renewed pressure on the Government to legalize hashish as an economic lifeline. Carl Massad, the Borgen Project 17 September 2024 at 11:00:00 This report from the Borgen Project “Our hash is the best,” said former President of the Lebanese Republic, Michel Sleiman, despite the country’s illegal status on the cultivation, trading and usage of hash. Although meant as a joke, it still points to the popularity of the drug and its transformation into a necessity. In a study done by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), 53% of cannabis users confessed to an increase in hash consumption following the 2020 Beirut explosion, citing relief from anxiety as one of their primary motivations. Lebanon’s Hash Industry Lebanon has been cultivating and exporting hash for 100 years. Despite being the fourth smallest country in the region, Lebanon ranks among the top four largest hash producers in the Middle East, raking in millions of dollars annually. The amount of profit that hashish produces on an annual basis in Lebanon is difficult to pin down since the production of the drug is still illegal and, therefore, remains heavily undocumented. In 2020, however, following a devastating economic crisis, the Lebanese government and the McKinsey consulting company produced a financial plan titled “Lebanon Economic Vision. ” The document proposes that the legalization of hash for medical and recreational use could increase drug exports from $828 million to $1.79 billion by 2025. This revolutionary idea could mean an unprecedented cash flow into Lebanon’s long-neglected agricultural sector. Where the Money Flows Most of Lebanon’s illegal hashish farming occurs in the Bekaa Valley, a stretch of farming land that is 70 miles long and 16 miles wide. Many farmers have switched to growing hash after the economic crisis in 2019, which kept Lebanon’s inflation in triple digits for years. Many farmers have switched to growing hashish because it is cheap. Cultivating one-tenth of a hectare of a hash farm costs $150, while other crops, such as wheat, can cost up to $3,000. Legalizing Lebanon’s Hash In light of this trend, there has been growing pressure on the Lebanese government to legalize hash for domestic use and export. As of today, 55% of Lebanese youth are for the recreational use of hash and up to 75% of them are for its medical use. The growing popularity of Lebanon’s hash has also been apparent in parliament. In 2020, the government passed legislation that allows for the farming of local medicinal cannabis (less than 1% tetrahydrocannabinol). However, the methods of injection into the market, the regulation and taxation of the market remain undefined and therefore make the drug illegal still. Final Remark With an ongoing war in the South and a financial crisis that a weak central government prolongs, the legalization of hash can be seen either as a temporary impossibility or a possible lifeline for the country. Carl Massad is based in Sarba, Jounieh, Lebanon and focuses on Politics for The Borgen Project. Synergy Wellness: Building a Medical Cannabis Eco-System from the Ground Up Read Moving on Up! Cheeba’s Higher Certificate is Africa’s First Officially Recognized Cannabis Qualification Read Presidential Cannabis Advisor: ‘The Industry is in a Free-for-All and We Are Dealing With a Crisis of Illegality’ Read NEXT PREVIOUS Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!

CANNABIS INDUSTRY BREAKING NEWS Akanda Secures Foothold in German Market; Will Source from Portugal, Not Lesotho Nasdaq-listed Akanda has moved quickly to reduce its dependence on Lesotho, where its subsidiary Bophelo has been liquidated and is subject to court action. Akanda has secured a strong foothold in the German cannabis market and will supply dried flower from its new Portuguese grow op, Holigen. Cannabiz Africa 14 August 2022 at 11:00:00 Akanda is to supply the German pharmaceutical group, Cansativa GmbH, with at least 1 000 kg of dried flower in the next 12 months. The source will be Akanda’s recently-acquired subsidiary, Holigen, which as an EU-GMP certified indoor cultivation facility at Sintra. In terms of the deal, announced on 9 August 2022, Akanda will supply German pharmacies with two novel cannabis strains. Akanda CEO Tej Virk said the deal was one of the most far-reaching European cannabis agreements to date and was the most significant deal that Akanda had done to date. The deal is also significant in that it reduces Akanda's dependence on it's Lesotho subsidiary, Bophelo Wellness and Sciences, which was put into liquidation after a boardroom drama in which former executive chairperson Louise Mojela was summararilly dismissed in June 2022. Virk had indicated earlier that in the event of not being able to rescue Bophelo, ditching Africa altogether could benefit Akanda's bottom line. Virk, said “Our award-winning, purpose-built indoor cultivation facility is the only one of its kind in Portugal capable of producing EU-GMP medical cannabis that matches adult-use grades available in North America. It has both the quality and scalability to meet the increasing demand for medicinal cannabis in fast-growing markets such as Germany. We are excited to be working with Cannativa Group to bring some of our best strains to Germany via their platform. Benedikt Sons, Cansativa Group co-founder and CEO said “the agreement allows us to introduce two novel medicinal cannabis flowers to the German market. This gives patients access to an additional provider with a new and innovative range of medical products. This exciting cooperation is a further step towards improving product diversity and security of supply on the German market. We look forward to a long-term collaboration with Akanda, to provide doctors, pharmacies and patients with access to an extensive medical product portfolio and to help improve the quality of life with the help of medical cannabis”. # Synergy Wellness: Building a Medical Cannabis Eco-System from the Ground Up Read Moving on Up! Cheeba’s Higher Certificate is Africa’s First Officially Recognized Cannabis Qualification Read Presidential Cannabis Advisor: ‘The Industry is in a Free-for-All and We Are Dealing With a Crisis of Illegality’ Read NEXT PREVIOUS Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!

Botswana Breakthrough: New President Embraces Cannabis in First SONA Agence France Press 20 November 2024 at 09:00:00 Botswana will diversify its diamond-dependent economy by launching into the medicinal cannabis market and exploiting its abundant sunshine, President Duma Boko said on Tuesday, 19 November 2024 in his first State of the Nation address (SONA). Previous Next Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!

CANNABIS INDUSTRY BREAKING NEWS Switzerland to Launch Europe’s ‘First Recreational THC Cannabis Pilot Project’ Other THC programmes are on the cards as project stakeholder says “If CBD opened the door for cannabis, these pilot projects will open the door for THC.” Ben Stevens, BusinessCann 30 August 2022 at 14:30:00 SWITZERLAND is just weeks away from launching Europe’s ‘first recreational THC cannabis pilot project’, the first in what is thought to be nearly a dozen cannabis pilot trials set to take place in the country over the coming months. Dubbed ‘Weed Care’, the pilot is set to be launched in Switzerland’s third most populous city, Basel, on 15 September 2022, and will run until March 2025. It marks the latest in a rapid succession of major developments towards cannabis liberalisation in the country, after the country made significant changes to regulation to relax its restrictive access to medical cannabis last month. Lino Cereghetti, COO of Pure Production AG, supplier and key stakeholder in the pilot, told Business Cann : “If CBD opened the door for cannabis, these pilot projects will open the door for THC.” Weed Care Pilot The Department of Health of Basel City, the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel, the University of Basel, and Pure Production will work in collaboration, alongside other stakeholders such as Swiss compliance software and supply chain management platform Cannavigia , to run the pilot. Around 370 participants, who must be over 18, a resident of Basel-Stadt and an existing cannabis user, will take part in the two-and-a-half-year study. Throughout its duration, these participants will be regularly interviewed to establish the levels of their cannabis consumption, and its effects on their physical and mental health, ‘among other things’. According to Mr Cereghetti: “One of the main goals of this study is to figure out if, in a regulated market where they have a choice, people choose risk-minimising products. Because if they go to the black market, all you get is high THC, no CBD.” They will have access to four different flower products and two different hash products with varying degrees of THC content under 20%. All the products will be supplied by Pure Production, and all will be available at ‘black market prices’ of between 8 and 12 Swiss francs per gram, the equivalent of around £7 to £10. Luc Richne r, CEO of Cannavigia, added: “In the upcoming pilot project in Basel, prices are based on the THC content of the cannabis and may vary during the trials. “The studies behind the trials are designed to give a better understanding of the effects of controlled access to cannabis on the health and behaviour of users and may also examine the impact on the local black market. However, the specific research questions will be decided by the relevant research projects.” Participants will be able to purchase their products from nine different pharmacies in 5-gram packs and will be able to buy up to two packs at a time. Cannavigia will also be providing the dispensing system for the pilot, which will see the producers ‘use its software to track their cultivation and distribution’, enabling the Federal Office for Public Health (FOPH) to ‘know the amount of cannabis produced’, and the dispensaries to ‘authenticate participants to ensure only people approved for the trial can purchase cannabis’. “Due to the Narcotics Act and the obligation to report to the UN, maximum conformity and transparency is required. In addition, the pilot projects provide a scientific basis for a possible future legalisation,” Mr Richner explained. “We have developed an extension of our Cannavigia software that provides the necessary information for both aspects. The transparency along the supply chain builds trust for a future legalisation of cannabis and helps to draw a realistic picture of what a possible legalisation may look like in the future.” More Studies on the Way These pilot studies have been made possible by vital regulatory changes made to the Swiss Federal Narcotics Act on 15 May 2021. While the FOPH approved the pilot on 19 April this year, applications for such studies are understood to have been submitted by Bern and Basel universities as early as 2017, which reportedly ‘set the political process in motion’. Despite reportedly being open to the idea, the Government was forced to reject these proposals on the grounds that no legal framework was in place that would allow such pilots to take place. Last May’s amendment laid out this legal framework, enabling a controlled sale of cannabis for recreational cannabis for research purposes for 10 years, and offering a ‘broad framework of possibilities’ designed to provide a strong evidentiary foundation for the best regulatory route forward. According to Mr Cereghetti, Basel, Bern and Zurich all announced plans to execute pilot projects when the regulation changed last year, but Basel was the fastest moving. Now the Basel study has been given the green light, a number of study applications from other cities are understood to have been submitted. “These are still in the process, and they will be granted within the next one, two or three months, depending on the submission date and how complete these applications were. “Currently, there are about 10 projects in Switzerland that have openly communicated that they have either started to submit or are still in planning to submit, and we are involved in many of them. Also, we’re considering setting up our own pilot project in 2023.” Not only are numerous additional studies due to be launched over the coming months, but also a fresh attempt at national recreational legalisation is understood to be underway. Following an unsuccessful referendum to legalise the cultivation, purchase and consumption of cannabis for personal use in 2008, seeing 63% of citizens vote against it, a second public vote was being worked on by Pure and other parties. In light of rapid progress made on the medical cannabis act and the pilot projects, however, the group ‘didn’t see a reason for a public vote anymore’ and decided to pursue a parliamentary route. In October 2021, the Commission for Social Security and Health of the Council of States voted in favour of a motion allowing the full legalisation and commercialisation of adult-use cannabis. Now, a subcommittee of the commission, containing nine people, has been given until October 2023 to draft legislation that would ‘regulate recreational cannabis nationwide’, and a parliamentary group has been established to ‘educate them over the next one and a half years’. “This means the people writing the law will have a good understanding of cannabis and the mistakes, from places like Canada, that we can learn from. “What has happened in public perception over the last five years in Switzerland has been incredible. We could have a complete regulation of the cannabis market in Switzerland by 2025. And still, these pilot projects will happen in parallel.” Business Cann Synergy Wellness: Building a Medical Cannabis Eco-System from the Ground Up Read Moving on Up! Cheeba’s Higher Certificate is Africa’s First Officially Recognized Cannabis Qualification Read Presidential Cannabis Advisor: ‘The Industry is in a Free-for-All and We Are Dealing With a Crisis of Illegality’ Read NEXT PREVIOUS Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!

CANNABIS INDUSTRY BREAKING NEWS JuicyFields Meltdown Triggers Copy Cat Scams as Even More Investors Fleeced Six weeks after the initial downfall of Juicy Fields, and the scandal has entered a new, unexpected phase that threatens to be just as harmful as the first. Ben Stevens, BusinessCann 25 August 2022 at 09:45:00 As the individuals and businesses publicly associated with Juicy Fields either retreat from public life or make overt efforts to distance themselves from the company, a very visible, vocal and understandably angry group of victims has emerged. This group alongside the deliberate confusion created by Juicy Fields in the wake of its collapse have created the perfect storm of conditions for ancillary scams to take place. Not only are ‘copycat scams’ emerging, hoping that lightning will strike twice, but more nefarious actors, posing as lawyers trying to help victims, are reportedly now targeting victims. Juicy Fields 2.0 Recently, a number of businesses have come to light, offering near-identical services to that of Juicy Fields. Most brazen is Sweetfields.io , a near carbon copy of the original Juicy Fields site, which has recently been flagged by many original investors. Business Cann has contacted Sweetfields regarding its connections to Juicy Fields but is yet to hear back at the time of writing. We also contacted businesses listed on the website as official partners, a number of which were also listed as partners of Juicy Fields before its collapse. Colombian cultivation firm Kannabyte , which had a legitimate ‘commercial relationship with Juicy Fields’ confirmed to Business Cann that Sweetfields was ‘using our name illegally’. A spokesperson said: “I have no idea who they are and have no contact with them. Furthermore, since everything happened, I have had no contact with anybody from Juicy Fields. People have actually sent me two more websites that are doing the same thing, so please be very careful.” Another ‘copycat’ business, or one that seemingly has ties to the original entity, is Jansen Grow, which has been issuing investment prospectus’. The prospectus pitches another e-growing or crowdgrowing model, promising to connect investors with ‘physical, legal growers cultivating medical cannabis’. It contains not only a number of the same supposed ‘official partners’, but also the Juicy Fields logo and branding in a number of places. Lars Olofsson, CEO of Swedish legal, investment and business management company PRIO Startup , who is now working with hundreds of Juicy Fields victims to build a class-action lawsuit, explained that while these companies appear to be a direct continuation of the original company, this was unlikely. “It could be Juicy Fields 2.0, the same people trying again, but looking at all the information and all the communication we’ve seen, they are more or less completely occupied with hiding their tracks. “So, I’m not quite sure they have the time and the resources to do this again. From my point of view, I would say that these are just copycats, some other people.” Secondary Scams Alongside these copycat companies are reportedly a number of individuals preying on those who have already lost money. “This situation has definitely attracted copycats, and also attracted a lot of suspicious individuals who are offering all kinds of services. And that makes the situation even more distressing for all the victims and even more complicated and complex for anybody trying to sort out things,” Mr Olofsson said. Among these scammers are those from ‘fake law firms’ claiming to be able to track and retrieve lost cryptocurrency payments, offering victims ‘false certificates, licences and track records’. Furthermore, victims are being targeted by so-called ‘Nigerian letter scams’, in which individuals claim to have already secured the victims’ lost money, but require their personal details or some form of deposit in order to send it back to them. According to Mr Olofsson, the current situation is reminiscent of the PPE rush at the start of the pandemic, after the dramatic spike in demand created an environment rich with opportunities to scam well-meaning businesses. “After six months, every scammer in the world was attracted to the PPE business and it became a complete madhouse. It’s more or less exactly the same situation here. “All scammers in the world are now attracted by the business opportunity of scamming these victims, and people are very, very confused. “The majority of these people, the investors, the victims, they are not experienced investors. These are just normal people with no experience of how to assess all these offers. So, it’s a very stressful situation for these people.” Juicy Fields Victims One such victim is the former public face of Juicy Fields, one-time CCO Zvezda Lauric , who has spoken out about her experience to Business Cann. Ms Lauric says she has lost over €70,000 of her own, her family, and her friends money since the collapse of the company, which she joined via a third-party marketing company after losing her job during the pandemic. After creating content on social media for the company remotely on a part-time basis for a number of months, she was reportedly asked to join the company full-time by Daniel Gauci and was soon responsible for handling events for the company. Asked of her first impressions of the company, Ms Lauric says they were ‘fantastic’, and that she worked with a ‘varied, talented and normal’ group of employees. She added: “There was a bit of disorganisation on the part of the heads of management, but everyone did their job and, unfortunately, I never investigated the finance or business part. “For me, everyone had their job to do, and I did not have to judge the work of others. Perhaps this was my error of observation and intuition. Never in my life would I have imagined this outcome.” Asked if she was ever given reason to doubt whether the company was not what they appeared to be, she said ‘everything was consistent’. “We visited the farms with which they worked – that was ordered by Erika Misela (who has recently deleted her LinkedIn profile), strategic partner and part of the board of directors, and Julianne Lewandowski, who was in human resources, and everything seemed fine.” Things reportedly began to fall apart when former CEO Alan Glanse departed, and internal payments began to stop coming through, leaving Ms Lauric forced to pay for the company’s booth at its last event in Seville out of her own pocket. Following Mr Glanse’s departure, Ms Lauric said that she and other staff were then put on ‘mandatory vacation’ for six weeks ‘waiting for the new CEO to tell me if he would hire me or not’. Once the new CEO, Willem van der Merwe , resigned on July 14, ‘all the chaos we saw broke out’. “I tried to communicate with everyone because that was my role. I received death threats. I was scared. I cried because I did not understand what was happening. I received messages of support as well as very bad messages. “I was trying to communicate with the people who I used to work closely with. Mr Gauci had resigned three days before the issue of the strike was mentioned. No one answered anything and everyone disappeared.” Ms Lauric has now reportedly been in contact with lawyers in both Germany and Spain, and is working with authorities ‘with everything (she) can contribute’ to try to achieve some form of justice for what is thought to be over 100,000 victims. “They took advantage of my work. They completely ruined my reputation. They took my money and my trust. I showed my face and worked hard for the company and it turned out this way. “I’m still desperate and frustrated for not having answers and not knowing more. I regret each of these events. I am very sorry and I suffer every day. Just like you, I am one more victim.” Synergy Wellness: Building a Medical Cannabis Eco-System from the Ground Up Read Moving on Up! Cheeba’s Higher Certificate is Africa’s First Officially Recognized Cannabis Qualification Read Presidential Cannabis Advisor: ‘The Industry is in a Free-for-All and We Are Dealing With a Crisis of Illegality’ Read NEXT PREVIOUS Cannabiz Africa Newsline The Business Of Cannabis Coming Fresh every Week. Stay ahead in the cannabis industry! Subscribe to CANNABIZ AFRICA NEWSLINE for weekly insights on the business of cannabis. Fresh updates every week! Enter Your Email Join Thanks for subscribing!