Greece Issues First Two MMJ Cultivation Licenses

November 22, 2018, Greece

Greece legalized the use of medical marijuana last year. The country is now moving towards the commercial sides of things. This month, Greece’s Economy and Development Ministry has issued medical marijuana cultivation licenses to two private companies Bioprocess and Biomecann. By the end of the year, the ministry will issue 12 more cultivation licenses. The licenses are issued for five years with annual renewal charges.

According to a Reuters report, all the 14 cultivation licenses collectively represent an investment amount of $212 million USD. The report also suggests that the establishment of these 14 cultivation facilities will create more than 700 jobs.

Last year, Greece became the sixth European Union country to legalize the medical use of marijuana. After legalizing the medical strain, the country started the import of cannabis and also revived its hemp industry. However, the SYRIZA government’s economic agenda is to transform medical cannabis into a robust export sector. For that matter, the country legalized the local commercial cultivation and manufacturing of medical marijuana products in March 2018.

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It is important to mention here that MMJ patients in the country already had easy access to marijuana. Therefore, the recent reforms for the cultivation of the strain had been derived from the decision of reaching international markets.

Besides working out the important regulatory and legislative groundwork to strengthen the nascent MMJ industry, the Greek government has also organized a number of prestigious events in the last couple of months to attract international investors. In terms of commercial cannabis cultivation, many EU countries are way ahead of Greece. However, the government firmly believes that their lenient regulatory requirements will help attract major international cannabis players.

There’s a solid rationale behind the keenness with which the Greek government is looking to develop the medical cannabis industry. The country is trying to make its way out of economic troubles and is latching onto everything that can help them achieve this goal.

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Greece had to declare bankruptcy in 2014 to get out of the decade-old financial debacle. During the same time period, the Greek people elected a progressive SYRIZA as the ruling party. Incumbent Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is of the opinion that medical cannabis can be used as a commercial commodity to achieve economic gains.

According to the projections drawn by the SYRIZA government, the Greek MMJ industry has the potential to yield $2.3 billion in revenues. The cannabis industry has the prospects of running multibillion-dollar operations. Many statewide cannabis operations in the US have crossed the market capital of one billion dollars and a few are quickly approaching towards this mark.

Economic experts think that Greece wants to become a major European player in the international medical cannabis market. In the next five years or so, the country wants to have the market share similar to Denmark and the UK, which are the biggest MMJ exporters from Europe. Amid all the hustle and bustle in the domain of medical cannabis, the Greece government is not considering the legalization of recreational marijuana.

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