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Summary
- NZ held a referendum in October 2020 to decide if cannabis should have been legalised for recreational purposes.
- NZ is expected to play a critical role in the global medicinal cannabis industry despite the referendum result, as per MedCan Summit 2020
- NZ’s cannabis would be among the best in the world, but it would face the global competition.
New Zealand passed a law, making medical cannabis widely available to help treat patients for whom the drug was the sole option to provide relief in pain.
The government eased prohibitions on the medication cannabidiol (CBD) in 2017, authorising general practitioners to administer it without approval from the Ministry of Health. Hence, several medicinal cannabis companies have emerged.
Medicinal cannabis products are available to patients only after a prescription from a doctor.
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The NZ government passed its medicinal cannabis bill in December 2018 to encourage people in palliative treatment to lawfully consume marijuana as a connecting tool, before the full Medicinal Cannabis Scheme was set up. Under the new system, commercial cannabis cultivation and the CBD and THC manufacturing has become legal.
As a result, medicinal cannabis became legal under the Medical Cannabis Scheme, which came into force on 1 April 2020, and provided patients with access to cannabis-based products after a prescription.
The referendum was done in October 2020 to decide if cannabis could have been cultivated in households, purchased and consumed for personal use. In November 2020, it was confirmed that recreational cannabis would stay as illegal.
Misinformed perception and high cost of medicinal cannabis
NZTech CEO Graham Muller stated that medicinal prospects are getting influenced by people’s opinion of recreational drug use, and they are entirely different. He stated that many people believed that over 50% of the population thought that cannabis was harmful and contained enough THC to get them high. However, medicinal cannabis does not.
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Patients have been complaining that cannabis is too expensive, and doctors who are not satisfied with their effectiveness are not prescribing them. While many manufacturers create products in NZ, NZ-made products are still not available to GPs yet.
Only about 5% choose to prescribe the cannabis-based medication as it is expensive for about NZ$350 for a script, though there are also reports of over NZ$400 for some products. There are 2 reasons for the high cost:
- Pharmac (Pharmaceutical Management Agency), the NZ Crown entity, does not offer funding to add to cannabis-based medications.
- All the current products available to NZ doctors are imported, and there are hurdles to imports, which result in high costs.
NZ’s new medicinal cannabis sector to grow as per MedCan Summit 2020
MedCan 2020 was the first medicinal cannabis summit of NZ hosted by BioTechNZ. The summit took place from 9-10 November and followed new medicinal cannabis regulations, which took effect on 1 April 2020.
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Zahra Champion, Executive Director of BioTechNZ and MedCan Summit 2020 organiser, stated that NZ was well-positioned to play an essential role in the global medicinal cannabis industry, estimated to be USD 55 billion by 2025, even after the recreational cannabis referendum had slipped behind.
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Dr Champion stated that the emerging medicinal cannabis industry in NZ was establishing new companies, employment, and growth. Beginning next year, the local industry will provide high-quality goods funded by research, innovation, and clinical trials to help lower costs and increase accessibility for Kiwi patients.
NZ to face competition from the global medicinal cannabis market
NZ cannabis could be among the best cannabis produced in the world due to strict regulations in the country and high standards.
Puro, the medical cannabis grower, was granted a licence to plant 10 hectares of the crop in November 2020. It has plans to implant over 80,000 seeds and seedlings at Kekerengu on Kaikoura Coast.
DO READ: How to invest in the booming cannabis sector?
However, the medical cannabis industry in NZ would witness competition from medical cannabis companies abroad, with Canada being one of the significant competitive players. Further, Thailand is another market that could give NZ strong competition due to its ability to produce cannabis cheaply.
