Over 145,000 Kilos of Danish Weed Goes to Waste
It looks like Canada is not the only country in the world known for destroying huge amounts of weed. In Europe, Denmark has also obliterated weed that has been cultivated under the country’s pilot medical program.
A significant portion of Denmark’s medical cannabis has never reached consumers, ending up in waste. The cannabis was destroyed on purpose, most likely because its quality did not meet regulators criteria.
According to the Danish Parliament’s Health Committee which has led an inquiry earlier this year, the regulator has issued over 300 permits for the destruction of 145,541 kilograms (or 320,862 pounds) of medicinal cannabis.
Reportedly, the figure includes all weed destroyed by licensed cultivators under the national program for cannabis, from the date the operators were licensed to start work.
According to MjBizDaily, who reported more on this story, the amount of legal cannabis destroyed in Denmark surpassed the country’s total cannabis output reported to global drug regulators.
The list of companies authorized to cultivate cannabis flower and other derivatives include units of Canada’s Aurora Cannabis and Australia’s Little Green Pharma. Domestic companies include Medican, a company with a seat in the city of Helsinge.
Denmark launched a four-year pilot medical cannabis program in January 2018. This is the country’s main scheme under which legal cannabis is produced. Even before that, the Danish Medicines Agency approved prescription cannabis for medical use (such as Sativex, Marinol and Nabilone) for cancer patients who need relief of pain and nausea, and for multiple sclerosis patients for muscle stiffness release.
Denmark’s case of destroyed weed is the latest example that in some countries the legally cultivated plant never reaches the market for various reasons. Most of the time, the crop is not cleared with the regulator, thus it needs to be destroyed.
The amounts of destroyed cannabis are much larger in Canada, where last year, Canadian growers destroyed a shocking 486 tons (not kilos) of unsold, unpackaged dried flower.
The Danish Medicines Agency said that the destroyed quantity of weed may include cannabis cultivated for the pilot program but also plant products imported under other schemes. The destroyed products may include extracts as well as flower that contain less than 0.2% of THC.
The government has so far not clarified why the cannabis was destroyed. Neither there is data that presents the destroyed quantities of weed year-by-year.
The recreational use of cannabis in Denmark remains illegal. Although, sales and purchases of cannabis are tolerated in Freetown Christiania, a former military base turned a commune in the country’s capital city of Copenhagen.
Also read on Soft Secrets:
- Canada Destroys Record Amount of Weed
S
Stephen Andrews
