Key players from around the world will meet up in San Francisco, California, this Friday at the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC). Last month the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for the rescheduling of both CBD and whole-plant cannabis.
Likewise, cannabis is a topic at the World Economic Forum in Davos, for the first time, making 2019 look like it could be the biggest year for international legalization yet.
Every ICBC is a meeting of the minds which features cannabis and hemp industry leaders, politicians and regulators, and others hoping to launch companies and their political careers.
Picking up where Part I left off, this second installment of cannabis legalization around the world will look at legalization efforts in Asia and South America.
Asia
South Korea made headlines in November 2018 when they became the first country in East Asia to pass a medical cannabis law. Thailand followed suit in December, when the National Legislative Assembly voted unanimously to legalize medical cannabis, potentially making it legal to include cannabis as an ingredient in Thai boat noodle soup once again. Aside from countries in Asia which have legal cannabis, China is a powerhouse on the international cannabis stage. China is the producer of the vast majority all cannabis vaporizers on the market, produces over half the world’s hemp crop, and Chinese companies hold numerous hemp/cannabis-related patents (over 50% of global patents related to cannabis).
While East Asia is now in the spotlight, they are playing catch up to their Israeli neighbors in the West. Israel has long been a leader of global cannabis research since Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, the godfather of cannabis research, first isolated and identified the structure of THC in 1964. Thirty years later, in 1994, Israeli activists began pressing for a medical cannabis program, which resulted in the first medical cannabis license being issued in 1996 (the same year that California passed Prop 215 and made history in the US). While Israel is still a global hub for cannabis research, Jewish cannabis journalist Madison Margolin reports that their “medical cannabis program is surprisingly meager.” The lack of a robust program at home has Israeli companies looking to export cannabis around the world, which the Knesset unanimously approved earlier this year. Now Israel is in a position to use that research to become a true powerhouse in the international cannabis industry.
South America
In 2013, Uruguay made waves around the world as the first country to legalize whole-plant cannabis for recreational purposes. Since then, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia have all created very limited medical cannabis programs. The same year as Mexico’s SMART decision, Colombia legalized medical cannabis through a presidential decree, allowing a country long-known for illicit production to transition into the legal market. Since then Colombia has seen some of the biggest players in the world start cultivation operations down there, including One World Pharma (Israel) and Canopy Growth (Canada).