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Cannabis is a wonder substance that can help the sick and make investors very rich Which is why more and more countries are legalising it, but not the UK – yet. Tibbs Jenkins reports on those who are championing the plant with huge potential

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09-17WELL-Marijuana - 4pp.indd 142 28/06/2017 13:42 ‘This is going to be a game changer,’ he says. ‘Particularly when it comes to the nature of the debate. People cannot say it has no medical value when our number-one medical college in the UK has an institute dedicated to researching it.’ It’s not just ’s research that excites Sathianathan. Forma Holdings, also co- founded with KCP and established in 2016, takes an international view of the market, with offices in London and LA, and has three main divisions: retail and cultivation; pharmaceutical and life sciences; and = £ £ investments in ambitious entrepreneurs who are shaping the cannabis industry. Many of these pioneers are focusing, for instance, on edibles – such as gummies, mints, chocs and the like, all of them branded to appeal to aficionados. Such products are very much a growth area in the US, believed to account for about half the money brought in by this exploding industry. Sathianathan was £ previously the MD of Tesco’s Blinkbox Books, part of its digital-entertainment business, as well as having been at Facebook early on. But in 2014 he stumbled across a piece of research by John Quelch, a professor at Harvard Business School, about the skyrocketing recreational-marijuana market in Colorado. ‘I just thought it was interesting,’ he says. t would be a rare Sloane who – a substance that brings joy and relief, and is Interesting? It was a eureka moment, didn’t have an ex-hippie aunt entirely legal for medical use in 29 states in the and it inspired Sathianathan to track down all too ready to reminisce US, not to mention in Canada, Uruguay, Quelch, who told him that ‘this is going about the hazy times she Israel, Germany and many other nations. (Its to be the biggest business opportunity since spent in a hash den in . recreational use is also legal in eight US states.) the birth of the net’. Sathianathan subsequently And it would be an even Some are so confident of its qualities and its went to Colorado for three months to network rarer Sloane who has never eventual, inevitable legalisation in the UK that and figure it all out, taking his family with clasped a spliff between their they’re putting their money behind it. Take him. And while he was busy hobnobbing, he lips. But it would be a very Kingsley Capital Partners, a British private- says, ‘my wife, who doesn’t know the first unusual (and perhaps rather equity and venture-capital firm that began thing about cannabis, would go to cannabis slow) City-based Sloane who investing in the emerging legalised-cannabis dispensaries with her friends – you know, Ihad not begun to examine market in 2015 and is the only firm outside middle-class women who live in London and the investment possibilities the US to be doing so on a formal basis. How were visiting us – and she’d say to me, “This of cannabis. Consider these figures: the already- much KCP have invested is, at the time of is just like going to a Kate Spade shop or a legalised trade in many parts of the US may, writing, under wraps, but their actions speak beauty parlour.”’ according to some projections, be worth as loudly: at the beginning of this year, they That sold him on the industry, and after much as $25bn (£20bn) by 2020. (The US’s founded Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies 10 years of being a techie he is now completely illegal cannabis market is currently valued at (OCT) in partnership with Oxford University focused on marijuana. As he says: ‘Twenty around $41bn). Dutch tax revenues from to study the properties of cannabinoids and years ago in Europe, we missed the birth of the legalised cannabis are estimated at £300m bring cannabinoid-derived medication to the web industry.’ And he doesn’t want to be left a year. And a 2016 report by the Adam Smith market – a first for the university. Even Sir behind this time. He gathered some former Institute claimed that the illicit UK market Patrick Stewart, head Trekkie, has endorsed colleagues and friends, raised money, bought was worth £6.8bn a year, which, if legalised, the research, having used cannabinoid-based a licence for a medical dispensary in Las Vegas could bring in as much as £1bn in medication legally for the past two years to and invested in five companies that were active taxes to the Treasury – and could, as the alleviate the pain of his arthritis. ‘This is,’ he in the US cannabis market. But that’s business Lib Dems recently proposed, be spent said, ‘an important step forward for Britain – his main concern is that those in need of on education. Prosecuting and imprisoning in a field of research too long held back by medical marijuana should have access to it. So cannabis offenders costs British taxpayers prejudice, fear and ignorance.’ last year he funded End Our Pain, a medically millions a year, and according to research Another big supporter of the research is focused non-profit campaign. conducted by the Lib Dems, around a million Gavin Sathianathan, CEO of Forma Holdings, Because what is perhaps more important hours of police time a year is ‘wasted a company that builds businesses in markets than the money that might be made from enforcing cannabis prohibition’. Yes, cannabis where the medical use of cannabis is legal. cannabis is the claim that the drug can be ]

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09-17WELL-Marijuana - 4pp.indd 127 12/07/2017 09:05 09-17WELL-Marijuana - 4pp.indd 128 4pp.indd - 09-17WELL-Marijuana J TATLER SEPTEMBER 2017 SEPTEMBER TATLER with pancreatic cancer in 2014. The Prince Candida Lycett Green, who lost her battle also spoken about his mother, the writer that advocates the drug’s legalisation. He has(CISTA), a political party founded in 2015 in the beneficial properties of many drugs policy. She is a long-term believer involved in attempting to reform global psychoactive substances and is also that undertakes scientific research into Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust Wemyss and March and the founder of the is Amanda Feilding, the Countess of with pain. emergency spinal surgery and struggling in a car accident that left him in need of been involved, shortly after leaving school, of the medical benefits of cannabis, having stories – Desforges has personal experience advice, recipes, products, news and patients’ about medical marijuana, featuring legal largest online resource for information MedicalMarijuana.co.uk website – Britain’s election last year. A contributor to the CISTA’s candidate for the London mayoral Desforges, who campaigned to be suffering of other people with cancer.’ with more research, it could help lessen the ‘that cannabidiol had helped her and that, to ride again. ‘She firmly believed,’ says John, being in agony, to sleep at night and even (CBD). The CBD allowed her to eat without ingesting butter enriched with cannabidiol able to lessen the terrible pain of her illness by of Wales’s great friend had, however, been academics and businessmen in the UK. conditions – a claim backed by scientists, [ side effects, including shaking’. that cannabis has helped to diminish the developed Parkinson’s ‘and has found close friend of hers, she tells me, recently suggested ways to move forward. And a to the medicinal and use of cannabis an overview legalof policies relating Global Cannabis Commission published drugs. As far back as 2006, Beckley’s ‘CANNABIDIOL CANDIDAALLOWED LYCETT Perhaps the most influential campaigner That chimes with Edouardthe views of used to help relieve many chronic medical GREEN TOGREEN EAT WITHOUT BEING IN AGONY,

Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol vocal on the matter and supports ohn Lycett Green, for instance, is very TO SLEEP AT NIGHT AND TO RIDE AGAIN’ TO RIDE ATTO SLEEP NIGHT AND

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Green, 2005 Green, Lycett Candida article article discussing the shutting down of Silk Daily Telegraph specifically, from a website she found in the online, as do most people she knows – every day. Now I am much better.’ She buys it pains stomach bad really had and regularly CBD for her IBS explains: ‘Before, I was sick anonymity-demanding aristocrat who vapes properly, can be life-changing. One (according to some) and had to be sectioned. temporarily mad, thought he was a chicken of cannabis oil in one night. He went cancer and swallowed three weeks’ worth writer Howard Marks suffered from bowel watching, though. The late drug smuggler/ even take it as a suppository. Dosage does need form, use it as ointment, drink it, eat it or smoke it – you can vape it, take it in capsule medical benefits. You don’t even have to CBD-rich cannabis that provides the unique THC but are rich in CBD. And it is the varieties that contain only a small level of caused by skunk. There are, however, other illness mental of talk there’s– much overused dangerous and damaging, particularly when more powerful varieties that can be very want a variety high in THC, and it is these (THC). Those eager to get stoned usually weed comes from tetrahydrocannabinol the munchies) that you get from recreational don’t get high in the process. The buzz (plus realise is that with medical marijuana you and Crohn’s disease. What many people don’t disorder, sickle-cell anaemia, Tourette’s, MS (IBS), chronic pain, post-traumatic stress with glaucoma, irritable-bowel syndrome Fans say that medical marijuana, if used Some believe that marijuana can help help can marijuana that believe Some ’s comments section, under an an under section, comments ’s

purchased online is questionable because as Feilding points out, the quality of cannabis treating, say, the symptoms of your MS. And, days or more, which is serious if you are mean that supplies can be held up for two and moving to the US. have considered uprooting her entire family the pain worsened, she tells me, she would drugs). Being able to buy online is key. Had Road (an online black market, largely in a day, and thank goodness for it’. And her ‘savage pain’, eased by ‘six to 10 spliffs Somerset dweller whose arthritis causes ‘temporary distraction’. Like the ex-Benenden a ‘couple of tokes on a spliff’ now and then as a the pain, though she is also quite happy to haveuses a medical-marijuana spray to lessen altering riding accident and now regularly remaining anonymous. criminals – which is why they insist on even for this most benign of reasons, into It also turns those who use such websites, burden of uncertainty on patients,’ she says. there is no regulation. ‘It puts a terrible try CBD for health reasons in a bind. One This can leave those who would love to properties without further research findings. he couldn’t vouch for marijuana’s medicinal (who did not want to be named) who said that as typified by the response I got from a doctor marijuana is locked in a catch-22 situation – But until that research is published, medical OCT and Oxford University effectively has. is exactly what the research partnership between permission’. Although, of course, permission is so very expensive. And it takes years to get to show theresearch valuethe do ofcan’t theyou things. And‘because the process Feilding, It’s a ‘really mad Kafkaesque situation’, says – research into its possible uses is going slowly. hard to know what’s damaging and what is not chemotherapy use medical marijuana. the reasons why cancer patients undergoing my nausea.’ Combating nausea is also one of been experimenting and they’ve really helped common sense on CBDs,’ she says, ‘I have Surely that’s not wise. ‘You have to trust your morning sickness. Cannabis? While pregnant? uses CBD in capsule form to help with the pregnant Notting Hill-based yogi who But technical glitches with online buying Like the equestrian who suffered a life- Because of the legal status of the drug, it’s

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PHOTOGRAPHS: LIBI PEDDER/CAMERA PRESS, NEALE HAYNES/GETTY IMAGES, DOMINIC O’NEILL PHOTOGRAPHS: LIBI PEDDER/CAMERA PRESS, NEALE HAYNES/GETTY IMAGES, DOMINIC O’NEILL 09-17WELL-Marijuana - 4pp.indd 129 4pp.indd - 09-17WELL-Marijuana of the Brexit negotiations.) leave the single market under the final terms (This, however, will be trickier should Britain and Sweden, where it is more expensive’. cheap and low-cost, but then ship to Germany a business in the Czech Republic, which is framework allowing us, for instance, to set up instead the EU ‘comes up with a single where each state has its own laws, and that the EU ‘does it sensibly’, unlike in the US, driving the EU to do this.’ And he hopes that says Sathianathan. ‘Germany will be pivotal, market, and it will be like Audi and Mercedes,’ to create the world’s largest legal cannabis domestically, ‘The Germans well... are going Germany does manage to make enough CBD to produce the amount required. But when such time as German manufacturers are able companies in order to meet demand until had to strike deals with a number of foreign government the point which – at March for medicinal purposes became effective in over the past four years. written prescriptions for around 150 patients of how and when to issue CBD, have only has been legal since 2013, doctors, unsure the Czech Republic, where medical cannabis Even in medication. current his with react CBD because they don’t know how it will already that doctors aren’t willing to let him try a complex range of conventional drugs Parkinson’s patient I spoke to is taking such In Germany, the law legalising cannabis cannabis legalising law In Germany, the Lycett Green, 2006 1999. Howard Marks, Righ t, John

soon? ‘Theresa May was not good on the but also to remove wind. said not only to make the consumer happy, of cannabis paste, milk, ghee and spices – is and bhang – a preparation made from a mix India also recognised its medical powers, word for anaesthesia, is ‘cannabis intoxication’).(the direct translation of recorded as using cannabis as an anaesthetic 200, the Chinese surgeon Hua Tuo was however, is biding his time and is confident dispiriting for Sathianathan too. The latter, Which is bad news for Feilding, and Conservatives will refuse to legalise cannabis. hasn’t happened. substances so doctors can prescribe them’, it the main thing being to reschedule these listen to experts and change her views, with hoped that, as Prime Minister, May ‘would Middle Ages.’ And despite Feilding having psychoactive substances, turning it back to the she was very bad – criminalising all issue as home secretary,’ says Feilding. ‘In fact, to have used cannabis tea for his gout; in – the Emperor Shen Neng, in 2737 , is said Even China condones it. Or did fibromyalgia on the market. those with cancer, MS and regulated cannabis products for medical marijuana, putting Might legalisation happen here anytime Instead, May recently announced that the Ireland is also about to legalise mazui , the Chinese

now know only pain’. Here’s hoping. of a better life for thousands of people who let ‘taboos stand in the way of the possibility deeply un-dope, as John Lycett Green says, ditherto – which is far from dope. In fact, it’s for the sick. They suffer while politicians may be, the most important benefit is really criminological pluses of legalising marijuana dementia is a hot political topic. cognitive decline associated with old age. And Alzheimer’s, and may actually reverse the (agitation, aggression) of dementia and against some of the behavioural symptoms cannabis use by people over 65 is effective research of the kind that has shown that be even more effective is yet more medical readers,’ Sathianathan suggests. What might argument than that for the ‘I think there is no more conservative the market, to take it out of the hands of kids. out of the hands of criminals and, by policing focused on two objectives: to take the drug Trudeau, whose pitch to legalise cannabis he points to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin arguments are used. As a good example of this, that opinion will swing his way if the right However huge the financial and TATLER.COM

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