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Thailand: Withit Saritdeechaikul, deputy secretary-general of the Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA), explained that people will be allowed to grow their own hemp and cannabis without prior approval when the delisting of cannabis takes effect on 9th June 2022, press reports. People will only be required to inform the FDA how many plants they are growing through an app called "Pluke Gan". This would also apply to those wishing to grow cannabis for commercial purposes, but that could be changed by regulation. The Cannabis and Hemp Act being circulated by the Bhumjaithai Party, whose leader Anutin Charnvirakul has led cannabis reform efforts, would require those wishing to grow cannabis for commercial purposes to obtain prior approval and pay THB50,000 ($1,450) to cultivate and another THB50,000 to process the plants, according to a separate report.

Colombia: The Ministry of Justice will hold the International Forum on Medical, Research and Industrial Cannabis, press reports. The forum, to be held on 1st June, is aimed at providing information on the recent legislative changes in relation to the cultivation, production, and manufacture of cannabis. The forum will have Israel as its guest country.

New Zealand: Three new medical cannabis oral products from Cannasouth Bioscience Ltd have received approval from the Health Ministry. All of them are full-spectrum extracts that combine THC and CBD.

Guyana: The government has presented the Industrial Hemp Bill to the National Assembly, who will discuss and vote on it soon, press reports. Although a draft of the bill has not been posted yet on the National Assembly website, the bill will reportedly allow for hemp cultivation and the manufacture of hemp-derived products. It would define hemp as "any plant of the genus cannabis and any part thereof, and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis".

EU: The EU Commission regularly reviews the list of hazardous substances restricted in electrical and electronic equipment. Following a technical assessment, an EU initiative "proposes adding tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBP-A) and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs)" – which are used as flame retardants in electronic devices – "to the list of restricted substances", following feedback on the draft act recently published. The Commission expects to publish a final proposal in Q4 2022.

EU: This morning, the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) of the European Commission held a stakeholder event on tobacco taxation to receive feedback on the upcoming impact assessment for the review of the Tobacco Excise Directive (TED). Officers stated that the Commission will adopt a proposal in “the first part of Q4 2022” and the impact assessment will be presented “soon”. In addition, they reiterated that the revision is triggered by the “the emergence of new products, such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and new addictive products that reveal the limits of the current legal framework”, as well as the EU’s market fragmentation, illicit trade and low cigarette taxes. Officers also stated that the review intends to be guided by the need to preserve the integrity of the internal market and citizens' health. In CBD-Intel's opinion, it is likely that some hemp-derived products such as CBD vapes and hemp flowers may be included in the revised version of the EU's tobacco excise directive.

Germany: After the health minister announced the intention to present a draft law for the legalisation of recreational cannabis by autumn, the Budget Committee, during negotiations on the 2022 Federal Budget, decided that an amount of €1m would be blocked from the health ministry’s public relations work fund until the cannabis legislation draft is presented later this year, local press reports. The Federal Budget is expected to be published in summer 2022.

EU: The European Commission representative who attended today’s meeting of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee said: “The Commission is taking account of the views that were expressed in the non-paper draft and will come back with a revised paper in November that will hopefully provide the position moving forward: if, how, and under what circumstances the Cosmetic Products Regulation needs to be amended to accommodate the increased use of hemp ingredients and hemp by-products in cosmetics.” During the meeting, there was an overall common position on the need to further support the hemp sector and the potential uses of CBD in a wide variety of sectors, because “there is where the real potential lies”.

US - Nebraska: Organisers for a ballot measure to legalise medical cannabis have filed a lawsuit claiming that the state’s signature-collecting procedure is unconstitutional, press reports. Specifically, the organisers object to a requirement that signatures must come from at least 5% of registered voters in two-fifths of counties, claiming that this requirement gives too much power to sparsely populated counties.