MJBiz - January/February 2024 - 16

INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS National & International
Cannabis News
government said the next two
growers, currently unidentified,
are expected to start supplying
coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg
in early 2024.
In the first phase, about
The Closed Coffee Shop Chain Experiment launched Dec. 15 in the Netherlands.
Photo by Jan van der Wolf/stock.adobe.com
FDA Considered State Data
in Recommendation
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
considered data regarding
marijuana's medical value
submitted by states with regulated
cannabis programs when
determining how the drug should
be federally classified, newly
released documents suggest.
Until now, federal officials
have revealed very little about
the Drug Enforcement Administration's
review process in
response to a Department of
Health and Human Services
(HHS) recommendation in August
that marijuana be moved from
Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 under
the Controlled Substances Act.
(The FDA is an HHS agency.)
Not even the HHS' exact recommendations
to the DEA have
been disclosed. But a rare peek
into the process surfaced in
December, when attorney Matt
Zorn obtained and posted to
Substack the heavily redacted
internal documents.
The documents show that the
U.S. government had " an interest
in state data " that several statelevel
regulators submitted to
federal officials over the summer,
wrote attorney Shane Pennington,
co-author with Zorn of the
" On Drugs " newsletter.
At least five states sent
information to the FDA and HHS
about what cannabis products
medical patients use and how
MJ treated their symptoms in an
effort to answer " the question
of whether marijuana has a
currently accepted medical use in
treatment in the United States, "
Pennington wrote.
Netherlands Cannabis
Experiment Begins
The Netherlands' cannabis
cultivation and distribution
experiment kicked off Dec. 15
in what executives are calling
a milestone for the industry
in Europe-even though the
supply-chain trial is starting
years later than originally
planned.
In September, the Dutch
Cabinet decided to give the
startup phase of the Closed
Coffee Shop Chain Experiment a
start date of Dec. 15, 2023.
Canadelaar and Fyta Group,
the only two legal growers,
had been authorized for
delivery to coffee shops in the
municipalities of Breda and
Tilburg. The program, which was
supposed to involve 10 cannabis
cultivators supplying dozens of
stores, originally was intended
to launch years ago. The Dutch
16 January-February 2024 | MJBizMagazine
19 participating coffee shops
in Breda and Tilburg will be
allowed to offer both legally
grown cannabis and unregulated
products. After six months (in
approximately June or July 2024),
all participating coffee shops will
have a transition period of about
six weeks.
At the conclusion of
the transition period, the
participating shops will be
allowed to sell only regulated
products. The experiment will
last four years, at which time
a decision will be made on
whether it will be extended.
Canadian Cannabis Industry
on Track for Record Exits
The Canadian cannabis industry
is on pace to see a record number
of federal licenses revoked this
fiscal year, largely at the request
of the companies themselves,
according to data from Health
Canada.
The federal agency revoked
42 licenses during the first six
months (April through September)
of the current fiscal year, putting
the industry on pace to surpass
the 74 revoked in the 2022-23
fiscal year.
While most of this year's
revocations came at the request
of the respective businesses,
a small number were revoked
in previous years because of
regulatory noncompliance.
Businesses also are allowing an
increasing number of federal
cannabis licenses to expire.
MJBiz - January/February 2024

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