Cannabis in Ukraine: new rules of the game
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The approval of draft law No. 7457 in the first reading moved the painful issue of legalization of non-narcotic cannabis from a standstill.
In order to simplify the regulation of the circulation of hemp products, separate regulatory mechanisms will be introduced for technical, medicinal and psychoactive varieties of hemp, taking into account the THC content in the apical part of the plant, developed by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Health of the Nation.
Healing herbs in the law
Three documents are offered to confirm the legal status of a supplier of medical cannabis:
- a license of the State Health Service worth 20 USD;
- permission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to place the farm in the specified location;
- international GMP certificate.
The annual licensing procedure aims to distribute quotas among market operators. The state license applies to all stages of the product life cycle:
- cultivation of up to 1000 hemp bushes with a THC content of up to 0.3%
- production of pharmaceutical preparations from cannabinoids;
- wholesale and retail sales.
When conducting an examination of phytomaterials, only the conclusions of specialized state laboratories will have legal force.
THC levels will only be tested during flowering; if the limits are exceeded, the crops are subject to destruction, and the enterprise’s activities will be suspended until the end of the season.
Big Brother sees everything
Control of the circulation of medical cannabis remains under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Enterprises are obliged to ensure product tracking by fulfilling a number of requirements:
- placement of plantations in greenhouses with automatic microclimate systems;
- compliance with technological standards in order to obtain standardized pharmacological raw materials;
- organization of remote control and video surveillance on plantations;
- bar coding of plants, packing units and product lots;
- maintenance of digital registers of phytoraw materials and medicines.
Bulk purchases of medicinal raw materials and ready-made canna preparations will be conducted by clinics and other certified organizations; export to the order of medical institutions is also allowed. During the transportation of commercial consignments of medical cannabis, police escort and GPS tracking of the goods are mandatory.
Organic medicine for the people
The current legislation provides for the only way to legalize new medicines containing cannabinoids, namely the creation of a register of authorized pharmaceuticals with inclusion in the list of substances with limited or free circulation.
Registered medicines will be sold in licensed pharmacies with electronic prescriptions, and users will be allowed to store and transport medicinal cannabis products in the quantities specified in the prescription.
Medical appointments will be monitored by the police; in particular, protocols for the use of cannabinoids for various diagnoses and conditions will be developed. Doctors, in turn, must undergo additional training in special programs prepared with the participation of UAMC experts.
Green light for growers
Technical hemp production will be transferred to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, which means simplification of the licensing procedure and removal of hemp from the common system of regulation of the circulation of narcotic drugs.
Police supervision is limited to monitoring the register of hemp farms; spatial restrictions and requirements for the protection of plantations have been eliminated. One of the amendments suggests the possibility of determining the concentration of THC in samples of phytomaterials in private laboratories.
According to critics of the draft law, relaxations for hemp growers increase the risk of becoming a monoculture.
First, the industry tends towards monopolization; second, without proper support for small farms, foreign corporations will have an absolute advantage.
Although hemp is classified as a profitable crop, the entrance threshold is too high for small entrepreneurs, because the volume of initial investments is 10-50 million euros with an average payback within three years.
Nevertheless, the game is worth the candle: in the event of the withdrawal of the Ukrainian cannabis market, the revenues to the state budget will reach tens of millions of dollars. First of all, it is worth considering an appropriate strategy for the protection of domestic producers and taking care of effective mechanisms for the redistribution of profits.
The material has been prepared and provided by the store’s couriers Duda on advertising rights.
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