Authored by: Loren Wiener
This Week In Weed TV & Blog
www.twiw.tv
GLOBAL MEDIA IGNORING NEW AUSTRALIA CANNABIS LAWS AS BIG PHARMA BEGINS MOVING IN
November 2016, deepest darkest urban Melbourne Australia.
Loren Wiener – this week in weed (twiw.tv), Australia Cannabis Law Reform
- As most people realise they can only believe less than half of what they see on the Internet, the global media could do themselves a favour by doing so as well especially those reporting on “cannabis news”. They might learn looking at the Australian Government websites, that even medical Cannabis laws are getting tougher in Australia by the week, while the headlines read “Australia Legalises Cannabis”.
- The stories would be funny, if not sad, false and purposely hurting the Cannabis community and future law reform as many believe the local and global headlines that ANY Cannabis in Australia is legal.
- Currently the media refuse to address the facts on the new laws. All the new laws take 30 seconds to 1 minute to fact check via “Hansards” a site that is the record of parliamentary debates, but the media just appear to cut and paste sound bites that are a bit light on the facts.
- As I occasionally consult to the government that is anti-cannabis, (offering the opposing view with me being pro-medical Cannabis and anti-pharma) they make me aware of the unclassified short term (12 month) road maps to Cannabis law reform from the government side of things. I let pro cannabis MPs know but with the media being controlled by government, the MPs are afraid to say the C-word (cannabis). Those sound bites are that Cannabis is legal so it is legal. Even if it is not.
How Is This Happening?
- On earth, (outside of Australia) there are effectively 3 types of Cannabis use; Medical, Recreational and Medical CBD. CBD is an element of cannabis that when removed from Cannabis can help with some ailments, more like vitamins than medicine but has seen, serious side effects on trials globally and even deaths from pharma products like GW Pharma Epidiolex per their own reporting site – http://www.bit.ly/epidiolex-serious . Medical CBD did not really exist until it was “manufactured” for the pharmaceutical industry about 10 years ago, by Hortapharm, for GW Pharma (UK). – per CEO David Watson of Hortapharm – http://www.bit.ly/FC-2k4-Watson
- Also in the USA California, legalised medical cannabis in 1996, pharma (including medical CBD) was not legal for another 10 years, so never really an issue to medical or recreational Cannabis in the USA. This means pharma (Bayer, Monsanto, Novartis, and others) had 20 years from California legalisation to embed themselves in USA states, or other countries against Cannabis as Novartis has done here in Australia)
- In 2014, the Australian Government committed to legalising Medical Cannabis based on demand of very rare conditions (roughly for 1% of 1% of the population) but a frequently referenced government survey in 2015 http://bit.ly/Cannabis-Survey showed that 94% of Australians supported the use of medical Cannabis. The government obviously VERY concerned (insiders said freaked out) have had an “active” 2 years of introducing higher penalties, against Cannabis in Australia. Australia even recruited so called Cannabis Activists hoping for a slice of the pharma pie. It has culminated with, introducing new bills against cannabis referring to it as a “drug of dependence” to not use the word Cannabis in the bill at all has now happened twice. Even re-defining “hemp” in all Australian states to lower the THC from below 3% to below 1% THC to allow it to be grown for the newly defined “Medical Cannabis “that is less than 1% THC. In the state of Queensland laws were passed recently re-defining Cannabis as any drugs that act like Cannabis including “synthetics”. Previously for instance INSYS ® Fentanyl was mentioned as an allowable synthetic cannabinoid and thus Cannabis. – http://bit.ly/exp-QLD-Bill-Oct2016
“7C The Explanatory Notes state that the definition of cannabis product “… ensures synthetic cannabis products will be included … for the purposes of the Bill”’
This has also resulted in new mandatory laws against Cannabis being introduced in November 2016, even creating new categories that place it in a category with rape, incest, murder, and terrorism. All Australia Cannabis bills are logged and reviewed on www.bit.ly/law-2017
IMPACT OF USA LEGALISATION OF CANNABIS ON AUSTRALIA IS ON CBD & CANNABIS
- An estimated based on the census that the USA has gone from around 14 million “recreational Cannabis users” pre-election to adding over 38 million post-election based on numbers of adults, this is not counting ANY medical users only recreational users totalling over 52 million now. That alone has an impact on Cannabis in the USA and Canada. Canada being part of the commonwealth, and a country Australia tends to cherry pick elements of Cannabis law reform form & also part of the Commonwealth.
With that, those in the CBD only industry (with no THC) getting more and more pinched. The result is them coming to Australia where it is pseudo legal (CBD with no THC). With CBD being called Cannabis, also means hemp, GMO, and synthetic manufacturers have a small crack in time before the population cries foul in Australia and knows they have been blindsided.
The government is in an awkward position creating a unique platform of licensing only CBD growers calling them medical cannabis growers, that have no demand, whilst prohibiting real cannabis growers that are not allowed to grow even though there is large demand as it is illegal. Thus, creating the expected conundrum. The government reports there is not much demand, so issues very few licenses. When asked if the framework the government has introduced allows the possible evolution of recreation cannabis use should a medical model be successful, Bill Turner the Director of the new ODC (Office of Drug Control) said to me when asked, “Absolutely not. Having to deal with or think about recreational is not possible in this model and keeps me awake at night worrying about how we continue to prevent it”.
The Impact on Australia on Bayer AG Buying Monsanto
Most are not aware the GW Pharma UK, is the largest manufacturer of Medical Cannabis with such products as Sativex ® globally, including to Australia and distributed by Novartis also a consultant to the Australian Government. GW Pharma has a long history with Bayer AG specifically on R&D that created medical Cannabis products, as we know them today dating back to 2003. Bayer was also the first distributors of GW Pharma and still are in Canada and the UK. Epidiolex is the next big deal for GW Pharma, which is 98% CBD and less than 1% THC. It is believed Monsanto might be able to add even more GMO to the menu though time will tell.
