Federal Court Rules Location Data of Large-Scale Medical Cannabis Growers Can’t be Disclosed

In Canada, a Federal Court has ruled that data on the location of large-scale medical cannabis growers will be protected from disclosure, reports The Globe and Mail.

The Breakdown

• In 2017, The Globe submitted a request to Health Canada seeking access to a list of addresses of individuals licensed to cultivate and possess cannabis on a large scale. The Globe found that these growers, protected by health privacy laws, have created a gray market and possess and increased susceptibility to organized crime.
• Health Canada rejected the request, arguing that providing general location details for these operations could risk breaching the private health information of medical cannabis patients.
• The decision was appealed to the Canada Information Commissioner, who agreed that at least postal codes should be available for operations in the most populated regions.
• Despite the appeal, the judge ruled that even if some Forward Sortation Areas, (the first 3 characters of Canadian postal codes) could be provided for areas large enough that no one patient could be identifiable, it would be too burdensome for Health Canada to determine the risk of someone combining the information with other data to identify patients.

Our Perspective

As the University of Ottawa law professor Teresa Scassa point out, this is a vulnerable community where “protection of privacy has to be paramount” but it is a bit surprising that the locations of large-scale medical cannabis growers, is a secret the Canadian government is willing to fight hard to keep. However, it is worth considering how the decision may allow the government to avoid the responsibility of providing a full response to access-to-information requests in the future, and may set an unwanted precedent.

Australia Becomes First Country to Legalize Therapeutic Use of Psilocybin and MDMA

Due to the landmark decision by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), it will soon be possible for psychiatrists to prescribe psilocybin and MDMA for two conditions, reports Forbes.

The Breakdown

• According to a release by the TGA, the decision “acknowledges the current lack of options for patients with specific treatment-resistant mental illnesses. It means that psilocybin and MDMA can be used therapeutically in a controlled medical setting.”
• Psilocybin will be eligible for prescription to treat patients with post-traumatic stress disorder; and MDMA will be available for patients suffering with treatment-resistant depression.
• The decision makes Australia the first country in the world to offer such psychedelic therapies to the public at large, for anyone diagnosed with those life-threatening conditions.
• The TGA has not yet evaluated any approved products that contain psilocybin or MDMA, meaning psychiatrists will have to access and legally supply unapproved medicines for the specific authorized users.

Our Perspective

This is certainly a landmark decision and an unexpected one, given that Australia is considered a very conservation country. However, details are still scarce and there will be a clear need for training the psychiatrists that will be providing this treatment. Furthermore, the lack of legal products available is also concerning, but this will certainly help set a precedent that will push the psychedelic legalization movement forward.

Uruguay Ships 1,000 Pounds of Cannabis to the U.S.

Uruguay, the first country in the world to legalize cannabis for adult use, completed the largest export of low-THC cannabis, or hemp, to the United States, reports Forbes.

The Breakdown

• The shipment, valued at approximately 2.5 million was fulfilled by CEND, a provider of technology and certification platforms to the cannabis industry, and distributed to Low Gravity, a hemp company that specializes in quality control, production, and distribution of flower and kief.
• In 2014, only 2 licenses had been granted, but a significant change occurred last year, when 167 new licences were awarded in the country.
• CEND has established a new benchmark, completing the largest export of cannabis to the U.S. to date.

Our Perspective

One of the biggest questions regarding this story is simply why the U.S market would need low-THC products. By all accounts, the market is currently flooded so it’s difficult to understand exactly why Low Gravity would jump through all the hoops to obtain product grown in Uruguay. With that said, it is interesting to see Uruguay start to become a bigger player on the international cannabis market, as the industry has progressed relatively slowly there.