A cannabis company with operations based in Jamaica announced this week that it has successfully exported cannabis-derived THC products to the United States, where they will be tested at a facility licensed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The company, Pure Jamaican and its GMP-certified, licensed pharma manufacturer Seven-10 Pharmaceuticals, said the shipment marks the first legal export of THC to the United States from Jamaica in a move that elevates the Caribbean island nation’s role in the global cannabis supply chain.

Jamaica legalized the commercial export of cannabis for medical, scientific and therapeutic purposes in 2015, although government regulations for exporting medical marijuana products were not approved until 2021. Pure Jamaican plans to take advantage of the opportunity by legally exporting proprietary pharmaceutical products with cannabis-derived THC, hemp-derived CBD and other cannabinoids to the United States, Brazil and other major markets around the world.

Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness granted permission for Seven-10 Pharmaceuticals to export cannabis-derived THC products to the United States, while the DEA issued corresponding import permits. The company then shipped the products to a DEA-licensed facility where analytic testing was successfully completed. Scott Cathcart, CEO of Pure Jamaican and Seven-10 Pharmaceuticals, said the milestone “is a proud moment for Jamaica and for our group of companies.” 

“Jamaica has long been associated with ‘ganja’ but never before in this context as a producer and legal exporter of THC as a pharmaceutical-grade medicine,” Cathcart said in a statement from the company. “As the only company in Jamaica licensed for pharmaceutical manufacturing of cannabinoids, we are proud to be leading the way to elevating the role of Jamaica in the global cannabis ecosystem.”

Shipment Comes As DEA Ponders Rescheduling

The first legal export of cannabis from Jamaica to the U.S. comes as the DEA is considering a proposal to relax restrictions on marijuana under federal law. Last summer, Rachel Levine, the Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), wrote a letter to DEA head Anne Milgram recommending that cannabis be removed from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. 

The recommendation was issued following an executive order from President Joseph Biden in October 2022 that directed the heads of the Department of Justice and HHS to review the classification of marijuana under federal law. Under the HHS recommendation, which was issued after a review of the available medical and scientific evidence, cannabis would be rescheduled under Schedule III of the CSA, a less restrictive classification than Schedule I that would ease cannabis research and likely lead to the approval of cannabis pharmaceuticals.

If the DEA approves the rescheduling, Seven-10 intends to request DEA permits to ship Pure Jamaican pharmaceutical THC products from Jamaica to patients in the US. Such shipments would be made to patients with a valid prescription and would comply with all relevant regulations from the DEA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as state pharmacy distribution regulations.

Shullette Cox, the president of Jamaica Promotions Corp. (JAMPRO), a trade and investment promotions corporation representing the Government of Jamaica, said that “the growth of the cannabis industry for medicinal purposes has been a priority of the government of Jamaica and particularly, the export of value-added products from Jamaica. The success of Pure Jamaican and Seven-10 Pharmaceuticals is applauded as JAMPRO continues to facilitate the local medicinal cannabis industry and ensuring its role in driving the growth of exports.”

Seven-10 has already begun shipping medicinal cannabis formulations to patients in Brazil, where regulations allowing pharmacy sales of such products went into effect in 2019. Prime Jamaica noted that together, the U.S. and Brazil comprise a market totaling more than 500 million people.

“This is a labor of love and not easy,” said Dr. Ellen Campbell Grizzle, chief regulatory and compliance officer of Pure Jamaican and Seven-10 Pharmaceuticals. “Jamaica has 52 percent of the world’s medicinal plants in our small island nation, and we are very proud to be exploring ways to identify new botanical medicines to bring health, wellness, new exports and economic growth to our country.”

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When Russian tanks rolled into the Ukraine last Thursday, perhaps the last thing on anyone’s mind was how the largest ground war in Europe since WWII would affect the nascent cannabis industry.

However, the reality has sunk in and it is clear to many within the cannabis space, in Europe at least, that the pending issues of reform, so important to the industry post-COVID, if not other issues inherent in a globally interconnected world, may come to a halt.

What will be impacted, and what will stay the same?

Production and Supply Chain Issues in Europe

One of the issues that will remain unaffected is the cannabis supply chain. Currently, Germany sources some of the cannabis it uses for the medical market domestically. Beyond this, cannabis is coming into the country from places so far directly unaffected by the outbreak of hostilities. This includes Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Greece, Columbia, Uruguay, Australia, Lesotho, and Uganda, as well as the beginning trickle of produced products from Israel.

Franziska Katterbach, President for Europe at Khiron Life Sciences based in both Frankfurt and the UK, said over the phone, “We do not expect the war to impact our supply chain.”

That said, the industry is likely to be affected by higher energy costs. Germany and Holland are the two countries in Europe most affected by rising gas prices arising directly from the conflict. The UK is also suffering. The requirement for EU-GMP certification that is required of all medical cannabis prescribed and consumed here, is that it must all be grown indoors. As a result, it is also an energy and water hog.

Alain Menghé à Menghé, the CEO of Lio Pharmaceuticals, a German distributor who is building a manufacturing hub based in Solingen, just outside Dusseldorf, is a bit more pessimistic. He expects the outbreak of hostilities to affect the entire industry, even if not directly. “Unfortunately, the situation is already causing higher energy prices which will impact anyone in the industry who needs to transport, store, or manufacture the plant or drugs made from it,” he said.

Price issues are one of the greatest problems in the medical market now — namely in the insurers willingness to approve cannabis-related medicine.

The Impact on the Ukrainian Cannabis Industry

The cannabis industry has a long history here. During the Soviet era, the country was one of the largest cultivators of industrial hemp. Cannabis with a higher THC level was also routinely grown, even if on the down-low, creating a large user base.

More recently, the legalization movement has caught on here. In October 2017, a Cannabis March of Freedom took place, kicking off the modern movement here to legalize the drug for medical and recreational purposes.

According to local advocates, the Russian invasion is essentially going to devastate the local cannabis industry. Thanks to several years of lobbying, including by the Ukrainian Association of Medical Cannabis, there had been some victories. Before last Thursday, it was possible to get a prescription for medical cannabis but obtaining both it and legal supplies was very difficult. 

That said, this does not mean there was no impetus for reform although local experts were not expecting change to come for the next five years. There have also been repeated efforts to introduce cannabis reform into the political debate — all of which have failed.

In 2019, the Ukrainian Association of Cannabis submitted a proposal to the Parliament to consider legalization of medical use. In 2020, a national survey showed that 65% of the population was in favour of medical reform. As of 2021, drugs containing nabilone, nabiximol, and dronabinol were on sale in the country. Up until last Thursday, cannabis was technically illegal in the country, although people were allowed to grow up to 10 bushes for personal use.

Given the current conditions in the country, it is very possible that the illegitimate market will get a major boost, starting with wartime interruption of everything, an inevitable black market, and the unavailability of medicines.

Political and Personal Issues

One of the greatest impacts of the war beyond the Ukraine is likely to be the political fallout everywhere else. This is particularly true in Germany where politicians have already mentioned that COVID would be pushing the entire recreational conversation back. War is yet another distraction. This is also as true of Deutschland as it is in every EU country and the UK right now.

According to Menghé à Menghé, “The deprioritization of other issues (than the war) could slow the dynamic of regulatory change.”

Beyond this, there are other considerations that people on the cannatech side of the equation are also feeling – namely the direct impact of the war. Ziya Gaziyev, the CEO of Berlin-based HelloMary, an AI-centered marketplace and platform, has part of his programming team on the ground in the Ukraine. “We are very concerned for our friends and colleagues,” he said. “Obviously this affects us on a personal level, directly. However, it will not affect our programming efforts or deadlines as our core team are spread out across several countries.”

Why Legalization Should Not Slow Down

Right now, it is critical for the cannabis industry to take charge of their own destiny. The vertical has been recognized globally as good for economies, a strong employer, and of course, is producing highly effective drugs, even if people are still not copacetic in supporting full reform. 

Given its “flower power” past, no matter how corporate it has also become, this is also generally an industry made up of people who are pro-peace and diplomacy.

Delaying change because of supposedly more important and pressing issues will only exacerbate the difficulties patients have in obtaining the drug. And escalating the war will only increase a suffering that not even cannabis can solve.

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Less than three months before legal sales of recreational cannabis begin in New Mexico, state regulators have increased production limits placed on adult-use cannabis cultivators. Under emergency regulations that went into effect last week, most licensed cannabis producers will be permitted to grow twice as many plants as previously allowed.

Kristen Thomson, director of New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division, said that the rule change is designed to help spur the launch of the state’s newly regulated adult-use cannabis industry, which is slated to begin sales of recreational marijuana by April 1.

“We have been listening to producers, consumers and patients who are as committed as the Cannabis Control Division is to supporting a thriving cannabis industry in New Mexico,” Thomson said on Monday in a statement quoted by NM Political Report. “Doubling the plant count for licensed producers makes sense to ensure that everyone can maximize the benefits of a thriving cannabis industry.”

Under the emergency rules, which will remain in effect until July, cannabis cultivators with a Level 4 license will be permitted to grow between 12,001 and 16,000 cannabis plants, while Level 3 license holders will be allowed 6,001 to 12,000 plants. Level 2 growers will be permitted to cultivate 2,001 to 6,000 plants, and Level 1 growers will be able to maintain 401 to 2,000 marijuana plants. Thomson explained the rule change in documents filed with the state’s Commission of Public Records.

“The Division has considered demand estimates provided by applicants and licensees in the cannabis industry,” Thomson wrote. “Projected market demand shows that the demand for regulated cannabis will increase year-to-year as more cannabis consumers move from the illicit market to the regulated market. The supply of medical cannabis will become increasingly threatened without an adequate supply of plants.”

Plant limits for micro-producers, however, will not be increased by the emergency rules. Operations of such small growers will still be limited to 200 plants, a cap set by state law that regulators are not authorized to override. The director said the department would seek a legislative fix that would allow micro-producers a similar increase in production limits.

“Equity and fairness are foundational principles of New Mexico’s vision for the state’s cannabis industry,” Thomson said. “We will work with legislators and the governor to ensure those values are upheld and that micro-producers see increased plant count limits as soon as possible.”

Caps Put in Place to Prevent Overproduction in New Mexico

The plant limits on cultivators were included in New Mexico’s cannabis regulations to prevent overproduction. Regulators feared a glut of cannabis that would cause prices to drop dramatically, a scenario that might challenge small operators trying to gain a foothold in the nascent industry.

But last summer, Linda Trujillo, superintendent of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, which oversees the Cannabis Control Division, warned that supplies of recreational marijuana would be tight once adult-use sales begin in the state.

“It’s highly likely we will run out of cannabis in the first week, if not the first two weeks,” she said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economic Development and Policy Committee on July 26. Trujillo told lawmakers that her prediction is based on the experience of other states as they launched adult-use cannabis sales.

Limits on cannabis production were first put in place under New Mexico’s medical marijuana program. Ultra Health, one of the state’s largest producers of medicinal cannabis, has sued the state over the caps, arguing that they are too low to serve New Mexico’s patient population. On Monday, the company said that the production limits on adult-use cannabis are also insufficient.

“Unfortunately, this increase may be too little, too late,” a spokeswoman for Ultra Health wrote in a statement to local media. “Sales to adults will commence in 74 days, and it takes twice as long, five months, for cannabis to be fully prepared from seed to sale. We are running on a deficit to support 130,000 patients today, so to think this new rule would somehow alter the biological processes required to grow cannabis is naive, at best.”

Ben Lewinger, the executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, applauded state regulators for considering potential shortages that would negatively impact those relying on steady supplies of medical cannabis.

“Protecting patients and patient supply is absolutely critical and has been a first-order priority through recent legislative and rulemaking processes, and we’re grateful that the Cannabis Control Division is working to ensure that medical cannabis patients aren’t neglected as the state shifts to legalized cannabis for adults,” he said.

But Lewinger questioned the rule change, saying that doubling the cap on plants only weeks before legal sales begin “undermines the work of legislators and advocates” who advocated for production limits to allow equitable access to participation in the new recreational cannabis economy. 

“Building the infrastructure to double plant count could take months to years for most operators, and plants put in the ground today won’t be ready in April,” Lewinger said. “Increasing the plant count now will only help the very biggest and well-resourced producers—it won’t help medical cannabis patients and it won’t help new businesses trying to break into the industry.”

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