Sally King: NZ Medical Cannabis Council Director on the changes to the export rules

The changes to New Zealand’s medical cannabis export regulations are being called a ‘game changer’. 

Exports will now only have to meet the standards of the importing jurisdiction, rather than New Zealand’s standards. 

It will also streamline the licensing process for growers, and update testing and laboratory requirements. 

Sally King, Director of the New Zealand Medical Cannabis Council, told Ryan Bridge that it’s one of those examples of overregulation that is being untangled. 

She said that at the moment we don’t export much medical cannabis at all, but the change is really going to open up the opportunity for New Zealand cultivators and manufacturers. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ranges to New Zealand's medicinal cannabis export rules have been
approved by Cabinet to help growers, manufacturers and exporters. Exports
will now only have to meet the standards of the
importing jurisdiction rather than New Zealand's standards. It will also
streamline the licensing process for growers and update testing and
laboratory requirements. Sally King is the executive director of the

(00:21):
New Zealand Medical Cannabis Council. Who's with me this morning, Sally,
good morning, Sorry I did that thing again, Sally, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello Marianna Ryan, how are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Thank you? Tell me why have we been requiring companies
thus far to meet New Zealand standards rather than just
the country that we're exporting to.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, Look, it's one of those examples of over regulation
that is being untangled. It's a very good thing. I
think it was an unintended consequence of the speed at
which the regulations were back in twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, right,
And the effect of that was that, you know, a

(01:07):
whole new industry and sector with regulations written within one year.
There were always going to be a few snaffoos.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Right, Okay, so it was a snaffoo, we've fixed it.
That's great. How much we do we actually export and
where do we export it to?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Mainly maybe to Australia and we don't We don't export
much medicinal cannabis at all at the moment. It's been
far too difficult. There's probably been less than ten consignments
since so far. But with the change, it's rarely going
to open up the opportunity for New Zealand cultivators and manufacturers.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Where do you think we will target? And are we
going to target whoever has the loosest standards?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
No? No, not necessarily. New Zealand has a reputation because
of it's really rigid or restrictive regulation for having really
good quality product here. So we're on the right, we're
on the right standard already. Where we will be first
targeting is probably Australia, but equally Europe. We have had

(02:11):
some confinements CENTERP into Germany and into Europe as things
shift there and we'll see a lot more of that.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Just finally, can you paint us a picture, Sally, of
what we're actually exporting? Is it a cannabis leaf?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
You know?

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Put in a box that someone can get high from.
What exactly is it?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well, up until up until last week, the only thing
you could export in this system was cannabis leaf, dried leaf,
and that was for further processing elsewhere. These regulations are
real game changes because they allow for some extracts, some
initial extracts, to also be exported. In all cases, therefore,

(02:53):
what we call cannabis ingredients, they're going to be further
processed or manufactured, or alternatively, we can manufacture it complete
propriate you know, GMP reading material. So the biggest opportunity
will be though with the ingredients.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Sally, thank you very much for your time. Best of
luck with that. It sounds like snapoo, and I'm glad
it's being fixed. That's Sally King. With us for more
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