Portugal goals of changing into medical hashish hub

“We must be the brand new El Dorado of medical hashish manufacturing,” mentioned agronomist Jose Martins as dozens of staff harvested marijuana in brilliant sunshine at a farm in southeastern Portugal.

The nation is quick changing into a European hub for medical hashish, with its heat temperate subtropical local weather — usually in comparison with California’s — making it a really perfect place to develop the plant.

“No different nation in Europe has higher environmental circumstances,” Martins informed AFP on the plantation, which is surrounded by razor wire and infrared cameras.

Set in hills close to Serpa dotted with olive timber and cork oaks, the 5.4-hectare (13.3-acre) farm owned by the Portuguese pharmaceutical firm FAI Therapeutic produces round 30 tonnes of hashish flowers a yr.

They have been arrange two years in the past after a flood of international hashish producers have been drawn to Portugal due to its favorable local weather and laws.

Greater than 60 corporations are presently approved to develop, produce or distribute medical hashish merchandise there, with 170 extra having utilized for permission.

Portugal exported some 12 tonnes of cannabis-based medical merchandise final yr, primarily to Germany — Europe’s largest market — in addition to to Poland, Spain and Australia, in line with the nationwide medicine company, Inframed.

Excessive requirements

However the business has even increased ambitions.

“Portugal is clearly on the forefront of European nations producing hashish for medical use,” mentioned Jose Tempero, the medical director at Tilray, a Canadian multinational that arrange a hashish farm close to the central city of Cantanhede in 2019, straight after Portugal legalized marijuana-based medicines.

The farm has its personal labs and processing and packaging websites, with its hashish oil promoting as far afield as Latin America.

The Portuguese growth is fueled by rising world demand for medical hashish for power ache, the unwanted side effects of most cancers remedy, some types of epilepsy and different illnesses.

Round 50 nations have to this point accepted the usage of cannabis-based medicines, and that quantity is anticipated to rise.

The worldwide medical hashish market is anticipated to develop to over $65 billion by 2030 from $16.6 billion final yr, in line with consulting agency Grand View Analysis.

“There’s a big demand from sufferers,” mentioned Bernard Babel, the pinnacle of German hashish pharmaceutical agency Avextra, which arrange a part of its enterprise in Portugal.

Portugal’s rising significance within the rising business all the way down to greater than its sunny local weather, nonetheless.

Babel mentioned it has “excellent regulatory framework” due to its 2019 laws which units well-defined high quality requirements, he added.

‘Rising acceptance’

Pedro Ferraz da Costa, CEO of the Iberfar Group, the mum or dad agency of the Serpa farm, mentioned these laws reassure worldwide prospects “that the merchandise leaving the nation supply security ensures”.

Whereas Portugal could also be on the forefront of medical hashish manufacturing in Europe, sufferers within the nation complain they’ve issue acquiring the medicine since many medical doctors are nonetheless reluctant to prescribe them and their value is just not totally coated by state well being care.

“There’s a ignorance” throughout the medical career on this “very conservative” nation, mentioned Lara Silva, whose six-year-old daughter suffers from a critical type of epilepsy that has hampered her motor and cognitive improvement.

When she determined to deal with her daughter with CBD, a by-product of hashish two years in the past, she mentioned she needed to order it from Spain.

Tilray’s Tempero mentioned medical marijuana nonetheless suffers from a sure “stigma” however he sees “a rising acceptance of hashish past its leisure use”.

© 2024 AFP