Saturday 18 Dec 2021 at 4:11pm
Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this articleabc.net.au/news/growth-of-australian-cannabis-industry/100701948COPY LINKSHARE
In a secret greenhouse in southern Tasmania 3,000 cannabis plants sit bathed in golden light, ready for harvest.
Workers wearing HAZMATs and hairnets methodically snip their way through the crop, sending piles of pungent flower heads trundling down fluorescent hallways to the drying room.
This is an industry on the precipice of major expansion, where consumer demand is rising and regulation is being streamlined on both the farm and in the pharmacy.
Overseeing the harvest is Grace Lamont, a genetic research assistant at Tasmanian Botanics.
“Every one of these plants is a clone and that is how we’re controlling the consistency of the output, so they should all have a very close range of cannabinoid content,” she says.
“They’re getting daily watering with a nutrient mix … and they have light for 12 hours a day.”
With 40 staff and plans to hire 60 more, this is no backyard operation.
Confidence in the future of Australia’s domestic cannabis market has companies spending big.
Tens of millions of dollars have been poured into the facilities at Tasmanian Botanics, which will soon begin production in a greenhouse that’s two stories high and about the size of a soccer field.
‘A lot of hoops to jump through’
Growing medicinal cannabis in Australia involves a lot of paperwork.
However, many of these rules and regulations are being streamlined according to Josie Hamlett, the compliance and logistics officer at Tasmanian Botanics.
“We definitely have a lot of hoops to jump through, working in the industry that we do … particularly in some cases when federal and state legislation doesn’t align,” she says.
“But there’s been a lot of reforms. It makes our life easier, but it definitely makes the patient’s life easier too.
“It feels like the government is definitely on board.”
Peter Fielding knows all about jumping through hoops.
He was diagnosed with oesophagus cancer in 2019 and struggled to get access to medicinal cannabis.
“Try finding a practitioner who can prescribe it legally. It’s still a problem,” he says.
“All I can describe it as is a miracle relief of pain. It’s so much less invasive than the opiates.
“I was given four months. I’m now up to 23 months and about 5 days, not that I’m counting!”
Healthcare professionals remain hesitant
Almost all cannabinoid products are unapproved therapeutic goods.
This means the government body in charge of medicines in Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, can’t vouch for their safety, quality or efficacy.
This helps explain why many doctors and pharmacists are hesitant to prescribe medicinal cannabis, according to Dr Yvonne Bonomo, a physician and researcher at the Australian Centre for Cannabinoid Clinical and Research Excellence.
“[Medical professionals] haven’t gone through that usual path of learning about how cannabinoids work, what you prescribe them for, how you prescribe them, what you should be monitoring for in terms of adverse events and side effects,” she says.
“We have to allow time for healthcare professionals to understand the field.”
However, Dr Bonomo says change is coming.
“With time, where they are shown to become effective, [cannabinoids] will become more available,” she says.
What about recreational use?
Tasmanian Botanics CEO Dan Howard is used to the sight and smell of cannabis. He has recently moved from Canada where you can legally buy the product for medicinal and recreational purposes.
“From the medical market evolved the adult-use market and that has now proliferated across [Canada] with thousands and thousands of stores and hundreds of producers,” he says.
Mr Howard believes Australia is heading in a similar direction.
“If you think back to 10 years ago, globally it wasn’t legal anywhere. It was a narcotic drug viewed like heroin or cocaine in a lot of countries,” he says.
“And now legalisation is proliferating around the world.
“It’s not an if, it’s a when.”
Get the latest rural news
- Visit ABC Rural for agriculture and mining news, including weather and the markets
- Sign up for Rural RoundUp: Stories from rural and regional Australia, in your inbox every Friday, or for Rural news daily.
Posted 18 Dec 202118 Dec 2021Share
Related Stories
‘What if someone shows up with a gun?’: The lengths farmers go to to grow medicinal marijuana
Cannabis haul worth millions goes up in smoke
Crime gangs dupe landlords, turn rental houses into drug farms
More on:
Top Stories
- Djokovic set to be detained again as he fights decision to cancel his visa
- ‘Treated like a criminal’: Djokovic visa cancellation. As it happened
- ANALYSISHow one botched decision turned COVID villain into a political victim
- ‘People are frantic’: GP clinics flooded with vaccine bookings after WA announces strict rules for unvaccinated
- Travis Head belts second Ashes ton to dig Australia out of trouble on day one of fifth Test
- After a woman died waiting for an ambulance, her body was left in the sun for hours
- NSW’s COVID-19 hospitalisations to ‘plateau next week’, as state records 29 deaths
- Two more tennis players with travel exemptions depart Australia
- Hillsong avoids fine after hundreds filmed singing and dancing at youth camp
- More workers can now be exempt from COVID isolation rules. Here’s the full list of affected jobs
- Australia may need to move ‘quickly’ on teen booster shots, but older groups remain the priority
- Loved ones of aged care residents are calling for a greater balance between managing COVID-19 risks and mental health
- From ‘healthy masculinity’ to crisis housing: How the government wants to end violence against women
- Northern Territory government admits to significant COVID-19 check-in app failure, records slight rise in hospitalisations
- Police remove protesters’ tents near Old Parliament House
Top Stories
Djokovic set to be detained again as he fights decision to cancel his visa‘Treated like a criminal’: Djokovic visa cancellation. As it happenedANALYSISHow one botched decision turned COVID villain into a political victim‘People are frantic’: GP clinics flooded with vaccine bookings after WA announces strict rules for unvaccinatedTravis Head belts second Ashes ton to dig Australia out of trouble on day one of fifth TestAfter a woman died waiting for an ambulance, her body was left in the sun for hoursNSW’s COVID-19 hospitalisations to ‘plateau next week’, as state records 29 deathsTwo more tennis players with travel exemptions depart AustraliaHillsong avoids fine after hundreds filmed singing and dancing at youth camp
Just In
- Downing Street apologises to Queen over lockdown parties the night before Prince Philip’s funeralPosted 35m ago35 minutes ago
- Is there really life on Mars? New study of 1980s meteorite debunks proof of Martian presencePosted 6h ago6 hours ago
- Kim puts heat on Oh in two-way WPGA battle, Morgan hailed ‘next Greg Norman’Posted 7h ago7 hours ago
- Outdoor learning encouraged as SA Education Department rules out air purifiers for return to schoolPosted 8h ago8 hours ago
- ANALYSISHow one botched decision turned COVID villain into a political victimPosted 8h ago8 hours ago
- Woman dies after fire ‘completely destroys’ unit in southern TasmaniaPosted 8h ago8 hours ago
source https://duchonsigns.wordpress.com/2022/02/18/increased-demand-and-regulation-reform-allows-domestic-cannabis-industry-to-blossom/
No comments:
Post a Comment