During his last speech in the Verkhovna Rada, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi emphasized the need to regulate the legal use of cannabis plants on the territory of our state.
BRDO supports initiatives related to the legalization of these crops and emphasizes the importance of legalizing not only medical, but also technical cannabis.
In addition, Ukraine should simplify the conditions for the development of entrepreneurship in this area as much as possible, because our farmers are interested in the development of cultivation and processing of technical hemp. This is due to the high profitability and price of hemp products.
The world market of technical hemp is estimated by experts to be more than $4 billion and has a high potential for development. Review of state regulatory instruments (licensing conditions, quotas, etc.) will make it attractive for investment in Ukraine.
What is the problem of the technical hemp market?
- The market is controlled simultaneously by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Medical Service and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, and should, like any agricultural crop, be subordinated to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
- Currently, in Ukraine, it is legally allowed to grow technical hemp with a content of the psychoactive component THC up to 0.08%, although in Europe, the USA, Canada and China, this indicator is 0.3%.
- The Ministry of Internal Affairs issues a permit for the use of facilities and premises intended for activities related to the circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors, including technical hemp, and controls the areas of crops.
- The State Medical Service issues a license for the cultivation of plants included in the List of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Precursors, which, again, includes technical hemp.
- The State Medical Service sets annual quotas for the cultivation of plants that contain narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, which extend to technical hemp.
How should it be?
Technical cannabis is not a drug.
It is a common agricultural crop whose cultivation and processing cannot be subject to strict regulatory instruments.
Since 2020, BRDO has been working on a study of the technical hemp market in Ukraine, which resulted in the Green Paper “Technical Hemp Market” and work on deregulation legislative initiatives.
We continue to develop regulatory changes designed to minimize pressure on this market.
Preserving traditional Ukrainian production, using innovative approaches, is more relevant today than ever. We call to restore the domestic economy together, in particular, through the development of entrepreneurship in the countryside and the production of products with high added value, in particular from technical hemp.