Planting the seeds of the cannabis revolution

TALI FEINBERG

The Constitutional Court ruled in September 2018 that it is not a criminal offence for an adult citizen to use, possess, or grow cannabis in private for personal consumption. Then in May this year, the health department effectively deregulated cannabidiol (CBD), the compound of the plant that is not associated with psychoactive outcomes.

“At this point, the South African cannabis industry is still in its infancy, and not all legal, but globally, the kind of products that are available vary from pain management to the reduction of seizures, and many other ailments,” says Leanne Blumenthal, a pharmacist with 32 years of experience. She is playing a leading role in regulating the CBD industry in South Africa.

As an inspector for the South African Pharmacy Council for 19 consecutive years, Blumenthal has a deep understanding of regulating medicines. “Through my years of researching globally, I believe that cannabis has amazing benefits. But it must be handled in a responsible manner as with any other medical product, especially if it is being given to patients that are already in a compromised position,” she says.

Demand for cannabis has risen because of growing global awareness of its effectiveness. “There is an increasing demand for alternative solutions in healthcare. Also, there has been a great success with cannabis in certain patients, and this gives us hope for a ‘miracle’ cure. Unfortunately, evidence-based medicines take years of research and clinical trials to prove efficacy, and this is serving as a great challenge and frustration for the industry at the moment,” Blumenthal says.

Blumenthal has been working to legalise cannabis for medicinal use for the past five years. “It’s important that cannabis is legalised to ensure compliance with standards. It would also level the playing field. The only people who would benefit from this would be the patients,” she says. “There is a global trend to legalise cannabis for medicinal use. South Africa already has processes in place to align with the rest of the world.”

As a pharmacist, she was drawn to this work by the medicinal qualities of the cannabis plant. “There is a lot of misinformation around the recreational and medicinal uses of cannabis. As healthcare professionals, we are always looking for more effective, innovative ways to treat people, and safer and more accessible solutions to deal with various ailments,” she says.

But she warns consumers to be cautious, as not all of the products available in the market are legal, and not all have gone through rigorous quality controls and testing.

“Try and educate yourself as much as possible about the plant. Certain strains are used for certain conditions, and it’s not always a one-size-fits-all situation,” she says.

Neil Freeman is an entrepreneur, and one of numerous investors in the industry.

“Our entry was an opportunistic one. In this case, Medigrow Lesotho was founded by Andre Bothma, who belongs to a family that has been doing business in Lesotho for three generations. They are reputable, and what we would consider true partnership material. The overarching qualification was to get into business with Andre given his track record, with the industry being a secondary consideration.”

Freeman says the CBD industry is “piping hot” at the moment. “Medigrow was an opportunity to get into a low cost, but very high-quality asset at the beginning, and have a lucky ride, looking back in hindsight, to a place where prospects are looking really good, globally. The early signs were there when we first invested in 2017, but they are now all over the place.”

For international markets, it manufactures a full-spectrum cannabis oil, made under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) conditions, although the company awaits GMP accreditation. For South Africa, it manufactures CBD oil, tinctures, creams, sprays, and patches with little to no trace elements of THC. According to an article in canniseur.com, the main difference between CBD oil and full-spectrum cannabis oil is that cannabidiol is the only cannabinoid in CBD oil. Full-spectrum cannabis oil contains the complete range of cannabinoids and terpenes that can be extracted from cannabis.

“The demand for ‘real’ oil – and by real I mean full-spectrum cannabis oil – is high, and it will be used for medicinal purposes only,” he says. “There aren’t a lot of producers globally given the extremely high cost of producing a pharmaceutical-grade product. We produce to fulfil this need internationally, given the shortage. We constantly progress to a higher and higher quality product to satisfy a market that will become increasingly regulated.”

In South Africa, he says, “there is demand, and the market is getting cluttered. We produce what we believe is a very high quality CBD oil in partnership with very reputable firms. South Africa is awash with untested or badly tested product that is extremely harmful to people. We saw the gap, and will produce to fill this void.”

He believes the demand for the product around the world is based on the fact that anecdotally – and in some cases through clinical trials – it has shown great efficacy. “It’s also a naturally good product, and natural is increasingly in demand if grown and extracted correctly.”

Freeman says the company’s biggest successes to date include commissioning a state-of-the-art facility in the mountains of Lesotho, and extracting the first oil in September 2018. “Our site selection took a lot of time, given the search for an absolutely clean environment – no pests, clean water, high altitude, and no detectable pesticides in the surrounding areas.

“We have finished construction of a fully European Union GMP-compliant facility on site, and await accreditation. Our initial investment from a Canadian-listed player, widely regarded as a torch bearer for high quality, gave us confidence that we were on the right track.”

Cost has been a major challenge. “A proper at-scale cannabis-extract facility and grow site is extremely expensive,” Freeman says. In addition, “there are no laboratories in South Africa that can test to the standards we require for a quality export. We imported and commissioned all equipment for this purpose, as well as bought and developed standards that don’t exist locally.”

He believes medicinal cannabis will be quickly legalised around the world, given its assumed efficacy and popularity. “Polls [in the United States] increasingly show more and more people in favour of full legalisation. You are also seeing developed markets legalising [the product], such as Canada, Israel, Australia, and Germany. In time, I believe cannabis will be legal medicinally and recreationally across the globe – or at least in most parts of it.”

Freeman’s advice to anyone who wants to get into this industry is to “have a lot of money and skill to do it properly, and at the highest quality standards, because regulators will demand it. If you are distributing CBD products locally, be careful. People taking these products can sometimes have very compromised immune systems, and impurities in concentrate form can cause a lot of harm.”