Europe
Business briefing
Current business and company-related news on the CBD industry
Regulatory briefing
Current legal and regulatory news covering the CBD industry
Market reports
Full-length in-depth reports with detailed data and analysis for individual markets around the world
Regulatory reports
Comprehensive legal reports outlining how the sector is regulated, interpretation of the laws and relevant bodies
Market trackers
Up-to-date real-time information and insights on brands, pricing and retail across selected markets
Regulatory trackers
Regularly updated global regulations currently in place, compiled into easy-to-read maps and tables
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Highlights of the data and analysis that can be found in our full-length market reports
NEW FORMAT
From February of 2022, subscribers will be able to view and filter individual regulatory alerts per region. If you want to get our alerts compilations, visit our alerts Round-up section.
Alerts
Our legal experts track the evolving regulation around the CBD and cannabis sector on a daily basis. These alerts are then compiled into our Round-up section.
27th September 2022
Italy: A hard-line stance against cannabis can be expected in Italy after the far-right Brothers of Italy party (Fratelli d’Italia) took first place in Sunday’s election with over 26% of the vote. The party, led by populist Giorgia Meloni, is likely to form a coalition with other right-wing parties, Forza Italia and the League – whose leader, Matteo Salvini, rejects the difference between “soft” and “hard” drugs and does not believe in the benefits of legalising or decriminalising adult-use cannabis.
22nd September 2022
Spain: The General Council of Official Colleges of Pharmacists (CGCOF) wants greater assurances on the use of medical cannabis, press reports. CGCOF vice president Jordi de Dalmases Balañá told the National Congress of the Pharmaceutical Profession yesterday that “the use of active ingredients as medicines requires proven clinical evidence of quality, efficacy, and safety”. Carola Perez, president of the Spanish Observatory on Medical Cannabis, called for the legalisation and regulation of medical cannabis to be put in place more quickly.
22nd September 2022
Czech Republic: The Pirates party, liberal progressive members of the governing coalition, has presented a comprehensive analysis of the potential impacts of regulating the recreational cannabis market, including recommendations. According to Jana Michailida, head of the Pirates team on addictive behaviour, this is only an initial proposition for debate. The next step will be the detailed wording of the law. If it gets the backing of legislators, a regulated cannabis market could be launched in the Czech Republic in 2025.
21st September 2022
EU: The European Commission has published a draft delegated regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on hazard classes and criteria for the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP). The amendment aims to update the CLP Regulation with new hazard classes and their criteria to take technical and scientific progress into account. This may impose new obligations on producers of e-cigarettes containing cannabis or hemp-derived products, covering more chemicals that may be contained in a device or delivery mechanism. The draft regulation is open until 18th October for comment, which will be taken into account in finalising the revised regulation.
20th September 2022
Austria: Transport minister Leonore Gewessler, of the centre-left Green Party, is drawing up a bill to place a legal limit on THC for driving a vehicle, similar to the alcohol limit, press reports. She said: “According to the impairment principle, a distinction must be made between consumption that may have taken place days ago and present ability to drive. Clear criteria for this would also mean simplification of the testing procedure.” The ministry is currently looking at the procedures already being used in some other EU countries.
19th September 2022
- Portugal: At the Medical Cannabis Conference, the chairman of the Portuguese Society of Pharmacists and former member of the Ministry of Health, Hélder Mota Filipe, said that it is crucial to make a clear distinction between medical and recreational cannabis, press reports. For him, people's perception of recreational cannabis can contaminate the perception of medical use. Possession and consumption of recreational cannabis was decriminalised in 2000 for personal use.
19th September 2022
- Germany: Two Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary members, Carmen Wegge and Dirk Heidenblut, have presented some SPD internal key points about cannabis legalisation on Instagram. Among other topics, the two politicians have positioned themselves against any THC limit, but believe the THC content must be declared on the products. Additionally, they support the sale of recreational cannabis in social clubs and in pharmacies.
19th September 2022
- Germany: Federal minister of finance, Christian Lindner, from the Free Democratic Party (FDP), said in a state election campaign that cannabis legalisation could be expected next year, press reports. Lindner later tweeted that he did not promise, but suggested that a bill will be presented in 2023.
19th September 2022
- Czech Republic: This week, the Pirates – a liberal progressive small political party in the government cabinet, whose member is Zdeněk Hřib, the current mayor of Prague – is to present to government partners a large comprehensive analysis of the impacts of regulating the recreational cannabis market, including recommended regulation proposals, media reports. Reportedly, the conclusions of the analysis show a lot of benefits that the future regulation of the cannabis market would bring – the huge tax income to the budget being one of the most visible.
16th September 2022
- Belgium: The Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment updated its positive list of already notified herbal products for smoking, which includes hemp flowers and other CBD smokable products. Products not appearing on that list may not be placed on the Belgian market without going through the notification process.
14th September 2022
Germany: Carmen Wegge, Social Democratic Party (SPD) spokesperson on cannabis legalisation, has told the newspaper Die Zeit that legalisation “will come” and “not fail due to EU law”. She said EU law was being taken into account in the process and that this was not news to Bundestag members.
