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Cannabis Innovate

Cannabis leaves and logo

Project Summary

2018-2020

Cannabis Innovate aimed to provide research and analysis across the three pillars of policy, legislation and technological innovation. The initiative constituted a partnership between the Global Drug Policy Observatory (GDPO) at Swansea University and Equinox International; with some activities undertaken in collaboration with the Transnational Institute (TNI). Amidst the rapid expansion of medical cannabis markets around the world, it seeked to operate as a knowledge hub offering clarity and solution-oriented outputs and activities to a range of end-users operating within an increasingly complex commercial and policy environment. The work of Cannabis Innovate was underpinned by the promotion of ethically sourced and environmentally sustainable medical cannabis from traditional producer countries and the belief that improved access to cannabis for medical use predominantly within the Global North need not lead to the exclusion and continued marginalization of small-scale cannabis farmers within the Global South.

Read more here: https://cannabisinnovate.org/

Technical Advisors

Project Lead: Dave Bewley-Taylor

  • Martin Jelsma

 

All GDPO material published on this website is licensed under a CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Related Pubications

Fair(er) Trade Options for the Cannabis Market

Cannabis Innovate Policy Report 1, March 2019

Martin Jelsma, Sylvia Kay and David Bewley-Taylor

Policy changes over the past five years or so have dramatically reshaped the global cannabis market.1 Not only has there been an unprecedented boom in medical markets, but following policy shifts in several jurisdictions a growing number of countries are also preparing for legal regulation of nonmedical use. Such moves are triggered by a recognition that decades of repressive policies have proved ineffective and have had grave negative consequences, and look set to bring a clear range of benefits in terms of health and human rights. There are also serious concerns, however, about the unfolding market dynamics. Many for-profit cannabis companies from the Global North2 are aggressively competing to capture the licit spaces now rapidly opening in the multi-billion-dollar global cannabis market. This threatens to push small-scale and marginalised traditional farmers from countries like Colombia, Mexico, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Morocco, South Africa, India, Nepal or Thailand – those who have supplied the illicit market for decades – out of the emerging market. 

Read the full report here: https://cannabisinnovate.org/

Lea el informe completo en Español: https://cannabisinnovate.org/