New Zealand Authorizes Home Cultivation Of Medical Cannabis

By Franca Quarneti via El Planteo

The New Zealand Ministry of Health has authorized the home cultivation of medical cannabis, so patients will be able to access their medicine locally.

As reported by International CBC, the country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean count on a medical cannabis program since 2017, although it has some limitations.

Why? Because patients could only be prescribed medicinal cannabis imported from abroad, from countries like Australia and Canada.

In this way, despite being home to about 35 medical cannabis companies, they were forced to operate with an import/export model.

But this, fortunately, has changed: now not only will New Zealand patients be able to access their medicine more easily (and reduce their costs by 50%), but it will also boost New Zealand's emerging medical cannabis industry.

In dialogue with News Hub, Carmen Doran, CEO of Helius Therapeutics, a medical cannabis-oriented biotech company, celebrated: "It's something the entire industry has been working for."

For his part, Tim Alridge, CEO of Puro New Zealand, one of the country's largest cannabis growers, added: “It hasn't always been easy. Navigating this new industry, braving the regulatory regime, and growing a new crop at scale has been a huge undertaking.”

"We expect a massive price drop so that cannabis medicines become accessible to New Zealand patients," Alridge concluded.

Image by El Planteo