Medicinal cannabis: High hopes as global shortage looms

AN ANTICIPATED global shortage of medicinal cannabis could be the opportunity Australia needs to become a major player in the fledgling industry.

AN ANTICIPATED global shortage of medicinal cannabis could be the opportunity Australia needs to become a major player in the fledgling industry.

Victorian-based medicinal cannabis company Cann Group says the forecast shortage is expected to last several years, as more and more countries legalise the product.

It comes after the Federal Government last month announced it would licence the export of medicinal cannabis, and the Victorian Government unveiled ambitious plans for the state to become an industry leader.

Victoria wants to supply half of Australia’s medicinal cannabis needs by 2028, predicting it could contribute up to $90 million to the state’s economy.

Cann Group — which was the first to receive research and cultivation licences last year — already has two small indoor growing facilities in Melbourne and is planning to develop a larger regionally based cultivation site.

Cann Group chief executive Peter Crock said global demand would increase as more countries allowed the medicinal product, while moves in Canada — the world’s biggest medicinal cannabis producer — to legalise recreational marijuana this year were likely to cause a shortfall in supply that Australia could take advantage of.

“Because our legislation requires that the product is for medical use only, that’s where the opportunity exists to set up a focal point for Australian production,” Mr Crock said.

He said he expected the industry would become a significant regional employer in Victoria in coming years, from cultivation to research and development.

Medicinal cannabis is unlikely to be grown as broadacre crops, however, but in glasshouses more akin to “high-value horticulture”, he said.

Figures from the federal Office of Drug Control show 20 licences to cultivate and produce medicinal cannabis — out of 56 applications — have been approved in Australia since it was legalised in November 2016. That includes 13 commercial licences and seven for research purposes.

It has been estimated about 11 tonnes of dried cannabis flower will be needed annually to service 30,000 patients.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia had a world-class reputation for clean, green farm products, and pharmaceutical products.

“We have some of the best farmers in the world. We have the most secure conditions for the production of medicinal cannabis in the world, and we have the world’s best regimen,” Mr Hunt said.