A “cannabis light” vending machine in Italy (photo courtesy Alfredo Pascual) The availability of hemp flower containing up to 0.6% THC in Italy led some marijuana users to abandon their illicit products, costing criminal networks tens of millions, a trio of economists has found. The researchers’ findings, published last... Read more
Authorities in New Zealand have threatened two hemp farmers with a $100,000 fine and loss of hemp license for selling products containing cannabidiol, which is permitted only in prescription medications in the country. Sarah Gibson and Aaron Silcock, hemp growers in the town of Reefton in the island nation’s... Read more
(A version of this story first appeared at Marijuana Business Daily.) United Kingdom-based GW Pharmaceuticals posted higher revenue in the quarter ended Sept. 30, largely driven by U.S. sales of its cannabidiol medicine Epidiolex. GW’s total revenue for the third quarter reached $137.1 million, about 16% more than the... Read more
New York wellness holding company Onassis Holding Corp. has bought a CBD maker in Slovenia for $6 million in stock. Onassis’ acquisition of MGC Nutraceuticals in Ljubljiana, Slovenia, gives the company a foothold to distribute CBD derived from Slovenian-grown hemp across Europe. The company formerly belonged to MGC Pharmaceutics,... Read more
Thoughtful Brands, a cannabis and psychedelics company in Vancouver, British Columbia, has dissolved its subsidiary in Germany to focus on its direct-to-consumer brands, including a CBD maker in Kentucky. Thoughtful Brands says its subsidiary Verrian Germany GmbH has sought creditor protection and institute insolvency proceedings in Germany. Verrian focused... Read more
Hemp-derived CBD supplement maker Elixinol shed half of its global workforce and shuttered production lines in the first half of this year in response to market decline stemming from the global COVID-19 pandemic. Now the Australian company is looking to leverage a leaner operation and focus on its core... Read more
Government officials in Guyana and Panama are considering legalizing hemp cultivation in their countries. Both governments took steps toward that goal this month, with Guyana reviewing feasibility studies and discussing hemp trials, while in Panama government officials and lawmakers formed a committee to discuss the potential of industrial hemp,.... Read more
Italy’s Health Ministry has backtracked on its decision to add ingestible, hemp-derived CBD formulas to a list of medicines in its narcotics law, issuing a decree to suspend the controversial change one day before it was due to take effect. The eleventh-hour reversal came as a decree published on... Read more
Canadian greenhouse giant Village Farms International is moving ahead with plans to take over a firm it started as a joint venture to produce marijuana and CBD in British Columbia. Village Farms, one of North America’s largest producers of greenhouse tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers, has approval from its... Read more
(A version of this story first appeared at Marijuana Business Daily.) A Bahamas committee charged with laying out an economic recovery plan recommends the country legalize hemp and hemp extracts. Presented last week, the Economic Recovery Committee report also calls on the nation to legalize marijuana. The recommendations were... Read more
