United Kingdom: Canopy Growth wins first license to import medical cannabis

Canopy Growth's pharmaceutical division, Spectrum Therapeutics, has been granted a license to import medical marijuana Basically, in the United Kingdom, the first of its kind issued by the Home Office, according to the Financial Times. It will allow the company to import cannabis from its facilities in Germany and Denmark and store it at its facilities in Buckinghamshire. The previous cannabis import came from the Netherlands through specialized companies. Individual imports are also possible, but they are very few in number.

Medical cannabis is legal but rare

Paul Steckler, managing director of Canopy's European operations, has declared that this license would allow Canopy to ship its products to British patients, as it has done in Germany. Currently, British patients must wait up to three months to obtain medical cannabis, yet legalized last November, as wholesalers must wait for an import license issued by British officials.

The UK’s medical cannabis program is extremely limited and can only be prescribed when all other treatments have failed. Only 1,765 prescriptions have been issued in the UK since medical cannabis was legalized last year. Canopy’s facility in Buckinghamshire, however, can store enough cannabis to supply 5,000 patients per month.

Mr. Steckler said that Canopy was «not even considering» recreational cannabis opportunities in Europe. «It’s hard enough to supply products to patients where medical cannabis is legal,» he said.