Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Waseem Alzaher: Cannabis Clinic CEO on the changes to medicinal cannabis licenses

Transcript

Waseem Alzaher: Cannabis Clinic CEO on the changes to medicinal cannabis licenses · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: David Siema was pushing to turn New Zealand into a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: cannabis export powerhouse. He wants to cutle the time it
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: takes for businesses to get an export license from over
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: twenty two days in twenty twenty two to just over
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: six days so far this year. Doctor wassim Elsa here
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: is with US Cannabis Cnnects CEO. Good morning, good morning.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Right the time it takes to get an export license?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Is that the big barrier here? Or is it about?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Are there other issues?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: There are other issues, but it's a step in the
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: right direction. Helping our companies, quepit companies get export permits
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: and export medicinal cannabis faster is definitely a win. But
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: it still comes down to the root cause of the problem,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: which is the fact that here in New Zealand we're
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: applying standards, pharmaceutical standards to our medicines, to medicinal cannabis
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that is above and beyond what other countries around the
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: globe apply. And so we still are disadvantaging our industry
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: here by holding ourselves to a much higher standard than
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: other countries.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's the big problem, isn't it. Because if you
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: want to sell your stuff here in New Zealand, You've
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: basically got to send it off shore to get it
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: processed and bring it back.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Don't you exactly here that happens, and it's happening right now.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: See that seems dumb to me. Why don't they change that?
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good point. It's also to do with
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: the size of the economy. I mean, to set up
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: some of these distinct facilities, You're talking about millions of
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: dollars of investment to set up, and it becomes economically
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: not viable. I mean, you look at the country. We've
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: had several companies start, We've had most of them go under.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: The last one Helius, which has gone under. That really
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: leaves in New Zealand with only one remaining manufacturing processing facility.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Everybody else is you know, hasn't been successful.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time. Doctor was seem Elsa here with US
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Cannabis Connects CEO. For more from Early edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: listen live to news talks. It'd be from five am weekdays,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.