Wisconsin's agricultural hemp program is one step closer to becoming permanent.

A bill co-authored by Stevens Point Republican Patrick Testin and Milwaukee Democrat Lena Taylor that removes the pilot program distinction from hemp passed the Senate on Tuesday.

Testin says the growth of the program in its two-year test run shows the crop has the potential to be something special in the state. "In year one we had 250 growers, now we have over 1,500. It's a huge surge, there hasn't been an expansion of any hemp program like that in the entire country."

He says that shows interest in the product is there from both producers and consumers, saying it could become something like potatoes or cranberries for the state. It could also help other producers like dairy farmers diversify their portfolios. "Our Wisconsin farmers are some of the most resilient in the entire world. When push comes to shove, they are going to find ways to remain viable. I hope this can be used as a tool to ensure that small operations don't become a thing of the past that we read about in history books."

Testin adds that he knows of one organic dairy farmer in western Portage County that's started an indoor hemp growing operation for just that reason. "From what he told me, they are very excited and optimistic about that [diversification]." Had the bill not passed the state's hemp program would have been taken over by the Federal Government, something Testin says he didn't want to see happen. "We thought it was extremely important that we keep this program in house here in the state of Wisconsin [so we can] build upon things we learned from the program in year one and work with stakeholders and the Department of Agriculture on what we can do to make this program stronger, more efficient, more effective, and more responsive to those that are in it.

"No disrespect to the Federal Government, but I'd rather have us administer it here at the state level as opposed to DC," he added.

The bill does need approval from the Assembly before going to Governor Evers' desk. R

epublican Representative Tony Kurtz of Wonewoc and Dave Considine (D-Baraboo) also sponsored the bill Testin also notes that Wisconsin has a history of leading the nation when it comes to hemp production. During the early 1900s, more hemp came out of Wisconsin than any other state. Much of it was used for rope, some also went to produce clothing for soldiers fighting overseas.

According to Testin, the state's last legal hemp harvest was in 1957.

The state of Missouri passed Amendment 2 in November of 2018, legalizing cannabis for medicinal use. 

The state received $13 million dollars in fees from those hoping to become medical marijuana businesses during their 2019 application period. At the beginning of 2019, the Missouri DHHS began accepting what they call “pre-license fees.” These fees are nonrefundable and range from $6,000 to $10,000. It is essentially the permit to apply for a medical marijuana business license in Missouri. 

There were 2,163 total applications received by the deadline. Only 348 total licenses will be awarded, leaving the majority of applicants out thousands of dollars with no business license to show for it. The new law allocates a certain amount of licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries, cultivation facilities, manufacturing facilities, and testing facilities. Amendment 2 calls for no more than 24 medical marijuana dispensary licenses to be awarded in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts, totaling 192 across the state. Missouri will be allowing up to 10 testing facilities throughout the state, though the law just requires at least two. 

There was no limit to how many applications the state could receive, regardless of the limited number of licenses that will be awarded. The state of Missouri says that this money will be used towards general fees associated with the startup costs of the new industry, with the leftover money going to veteran’s affairs. 

Even with this claim, there are many people worried that this was a greedy move by the state. 

Roughly 1,200 of these total applications were received in the final three days, including 800 in the final 24 hours. Additionally, Missouri allowed more than 100 applications to be submitted after the deadline due to claims of technical glitches from potential applicants. This comes much to the dismay of those applicants who paid thousands of dollars in fees months in advance, as well as dedicating hundreds of hours to the tedious application process. 

Missouri will award licenses at the end of the year. Once the businesses are established, they have renewal fees ranging from $3,000-$25,000 in order to stay in operation. 

Humans are getting extra help in farming cannabis – his name is William and he’s an AI robot.

The fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, has brought about rapid changes in a variety of businesses, revolutionizing everything from how we make cars (think Tesla, which heavily relies on automation at its Fremont factory) and how we drive (self-driving technology) to major advances in e-commerce (Amazon’s algorithms) and agriculture.    

Companies that embrace new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) can expect a surge in efficiency and productivity.

And one young industry increasingly looking to reap these benefits is legal cannabis as new opportunities to boost profitability are springing up every day.

Growing tech for a growing industry 

William Bond AI is vying to position itself at the forefront of implementing new tech in the cultivation of marijuana. Founder Nate Morris is a firm believer in the power of AI, which he says will transform the booming pot business. 

“Right now, it’s kind of an obscure topic. It’s not going to be obscure for long. [Cannabis] is going to be one of the first industries to be disrupted,” Morris told NJ Cannabis Insider.

His robot, named William, is based on FarmBot, an open-source robot that facilitates farming. Morris programmed the machine to work specifically on cannabis – William can plant, water and monitor the plant’s health using infrared technology.

High tech is already reshaping agriculture and can prove to be a game-changer in the cannabis industry, which is already a multi-billion dollar business only expected to grow further.    

Cutting-edge apps in marijuana 

Another player in the evolving industry is Potbot. This application, available both in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, “simplifies the lives of medical marijuana patients who do not know which strain will be best for their condition.”

Potbot uses AI to scan through medical cannabis data in order to provide a personalized recommendation to patients. 

New strides in the delivery of marijuana have also been made with California-based company Eaze offering a mobile app for connecting users with dispensaries.

Eaze now provides, aside from on-demand weed delivery to people in California and Oregon, the shipping of CBD products to residents in 45 states and Washington DC.  

But no story on marijuana and start-ups pioneering new tech would be complete without Israel. Known as the start-up nation, Israel has been acquainted with medical marijuana since the early 1990s and is home to the world’s largest facility of medical cannabis. 

It is also the home country of Seedo, a company that manufactures hermetically sealed grow boxes that employ artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to grow cannabis at home with a handy app. 

After pairing the box with your smartphone, Seedo promises to deliver “maximum yields using minimum living space & energy” as it creates the optimal environment and conditions for the home-growing of plants. 

And as an increasing number of states in the US move to legalize pot, and with full legalization in Canada, the cannabis industry can expect to see more and more sophisticated technology being utilized in the fast-growing business.

Medical cannabis has been legal in Australia since 2016 with almost 20,000 legal patient approvals.

The law was introduced in Australia in February 2016 to establish a regime authorising the cultivation and production of medicinal cannabis. This allows for a supply of medicinal cannabis products to be available for therapeutic purposes and furthermore to facilitate scientific research in the area. Recreational cannabis remains illegal.

The United Kingdom made medical cannabis legal in November 2018. This was a moment that was hailed as a landmark victory for the British medical industry, with scientists, researchers and patients alike welcoming the revision. However, getting access to medical cannabis has not been an easy feat for UK patients, with most prescriptions being provided through private practices.

As cultivation and storage of cannabis is not permitted in the UK, each prescription is ordered on a name-patient basis from other countries, meaning patients can be waiting months at a time for their prescription.

Paul Mavor, an Australian and UK pharmacist whose company, Health House, was granted the first medicinal cannabis import license in Australia.

Mavor spoke with Medical Cannabis Network about speeding up access to medical cannabis prescriptions for patients and about knowledge sharing between the United Kingdom and Australia.

Australia and United Kingdom: knowledge sharing

Australia has come a long way since Mavor’s first import – he said: “We imported the first shipment into Australia and it was also one of the first global shipments anywhere. The Australian government legalised medical cannabis previously and allowed us to import the medicine in bulk – which is very different to the UK, as in the UK it is on a name-patient basis.

“While that status quo is maintained some of the prices of medical cannabis are going to be very, very expensive.

“Health Canada takes 30 working days to process a prescription, which, sometimes, can end up taking up to two months once you take into account delays, weekends and public holidays. We have already seen doctors writing prescriptions and the patients not receiving medication until six weeks later. Importing one prescription instead of 100 or 1000 makes the cost about ten times higher than it should be.

“When we made our first import, we had support of the Australian government and shook the hands of the of the customs officers when we picked up the parcel – it was the start of a new era.”

Mavor noted that education and advocacy are vital when it comes to knowledge sharing.

He said: “Education for prescribers is extremely important to start the ball rolling – with health professionals educating other health professionals. It has worked in Australia as a lot of people have received that education and been able to understand the research, the dosing and the endocannabinoid system.

“A lot of the prescribers were trained ten and 20 years ago and have never been taught about the endocannabinoid system and prescribing cannabis – it is a very new area of science that is only just being taught in medical schools. This is changing for younger graduates however but there is a lot more work to be done. It is ongoing thing and there is a lot of research happening which is changing it on a daily basis.”

He continued: “Attitudes around medical cannabis need to change – it is not an alternative medicine, it is a mainstream drug that has been used for a very long time. Cannabis is another tool in the box and we definitely need to do more research – but there is enough evidence there to roll this out for a certain cohort of patients.

“We set up Medical Cannabis Research Australia and we have some amazing people involved in the project; it’s about education. So, we helped set up a group called Medical Choices UK because we wanted to establish and get things rolling in the UK and help with advocacy moving forward.

“Advocacy, education and research are the three main pillars of our organisation.

“It is very important to promote the research and the science, however, we also have to be so careful not to overstate benefits, as there are side effects and it may not be the best drug for certain conditions.”

Patient access

Quick and easy access to medical cannabis is not an option for UK patients, with many waiting up to six weeks or longer to receive their medication.

Mavor said: “When we started prescribing here in Australia, like the UK, patient access was very difficult. The process was a two month wait with a lot of hoops and hurdles. These were medical patients that were often chronically ill and there were few prescribers.

“Unfortunately, what the regulators did was cut and paste a lot of the regulation around amphetamines when there was too much prescribing in that area. Of course, there was no prescribing in the area of medical cannabis – so it just didn’t work.

“In Australia we had palliative care patients who we could have prescribed the next day but their prescription was only approved months later.

“Within that time the patient passed away after a few days, meaning they had no access to medicine during that difficult time. Thankfully, now we have managed to get the time down from around two months to less than a day. Our fastest approval came in at 3 minutes.  Instead of a hefty array of paperwork there is now a one page online form which is approved by a delegate rather than a committee.”

“We have GPs allowed to prescribe and more clinics are being set up that patients can be referred to. We had 300 in the first year and are now on track for 20,000 patients.”

Mavor said that it is not always the politicians that are getting in the way of speedy access to medicine.

He said: “The United Kingdom can advance patient access through negotiation, and advocacy through medical cannabis research.

“This is why it is important to have education as well as advocacy. It is important to have that conversation with the regulators and make sure there is balance of patients receiving medicine in a timely manner.

“In Australia we had a two-tier system, federal approval then state-by-state approval. It is still not perfect, but we have got rid of most of the state approvals and we have streamlined the federal approval from being a number of forms to becoming a one-page online form that the doctors can fill out. They used to have to assess each case but now, as long as it falls within the guidelines, it can be approved a lot faster.”

Cannabis in the UK is accessed through a private prescription – it has not yet been subsidised. However, many places such as the Czech Republic are starting to see patients receive subsidies through various private health funds.

Mavor said that: “The NHS trust may find that it is cash flow positive to pay for medical cannabis in cases such as treatment-resistant epilepsy, for example, because if it is keeping patients out of hospital and healthy than that is actually saving money as well as alleviating the patients suffering and help them live a healthier life at the same time.

“There is a lot of blame being apportioned to politicians, big pharma the medical community but it is none of those people holding it back – the conversation needs to be with the regulators the guidelines of specialists-only prescribing.

“Having medical cannabis imported on a name-patient basis and not being able to store any stock in the country is really increasing suffering by not allowing access in a timely manner. It is essentially a prohibition-style access scheme because there is so many hurdles.

“Both of these things need to change. That is not to say there will be bulk prescribing, but it means people can access it so much quicker. This is especially important for palliative care because there is really good evidence for end-of-life care and for nausea induced by chemotherapy for example, as well as drug resistant epilepsy – some of those patients can’t wait six weeks.

“There is hope – it just needs advocacy. Medical cannabis is a valid treatment option.”