In this week’s podcast Mitch and Andrew sit down with Under Jungle director Joshua Savage to chat about the distinctions of the Australian cannabis marketplace. 

Joshua Savage has assisted with the development and operations of various innovative projects in the international cannabis arena and has currently set base in Australia. With the development of his tech startup Under Jungle, a compliant, wholesale cannabis and hemp marketplace for vendors. Under Jungle is an exclusive international B2B cannabis marketplace platform.

In 2016, Harm Reduction Journal wrote that the Australian federal government passed legislation enabling a range of cannabis-based products to be prescribed to patients by registered healthcare professionals. An online survey conducted immediately prior to these legislative changes found that the vast majority of respondents at the time were illicitly sourcing cannabis plant matter, smoking was the preferred route of administration and mental health, chronic pain, and sleep conditions were the most frequently cited reasons for medical cannabis use.

In this podcast, Joshua offers up qualified insights into the reality of the emerging Australian cannabis marketplace in this podcast. Then there is the issue of how, the cannabis industry laws seek to inflict maximum damage well beyond any legal principle of proportionality. 

When comparing the domestic cannabis marketplace to international counterparts, Australia is subject to more stringent regulatory barriers in terms of access and manufacturing. In the US, individual states set up policy structures and separate industry sectors for the booming medicinal CBD industry, as well as a recreational cannabis industry too.

With a push for higher GMP standards, the highest pharmaceutical manufacturing standards practice. With the barriers of tight policy regulation and high production costs, Australian vendors will be competing on an unlevel playing field when exporting cannabis products internationally. Furthermore, the industry may see reduced product availability from domestic producers. 

Check out Episode 3 of the Altmed Podcast for more on how Australia’s cannabis marketplace is being shaped.

Key Points

 1:10 – Speaking about latest trends, Joshua mentioned the transition into GMP certified products being imported in the domestic industry along with focus upon enhancing quality standards in international market as top priority.

2:43 – Joshua started in a sales position in Washington which was actually the first state to go recreational. Explaining the nature of his job, he mentioned that since knowing the customers was mandatory for US banks, they facilitated by initiating a compliance platforms for banks dealing with financial transactions relevant to cannabis industry.

4:00 – Joshua spelled out that it was his job to ensure that no money laundering chain was functional in the pretext of cannabis supplies.

5:01 – Joshua believed that although the industry was inclined to capture global audience, however, the short term goal was the biggest and fastest market of North America

5:34 – Joshua was recruited over to Australia to work for an ad company where he learnt in detail about drug control and compliance mechanism. Afterwards, he started the Australian Cannabis Marketplace to enhance communication among cannabis community and facilitate them in acquiring license.

7:17 – Joshua described his journey to set up a beneficial tool for cannabis industry by the name of under jungle platform which is completely free to join.

8:27 – Joshua spoke about difference in US and Australian cannabis industry. He believed that while many facets of medicinal cannabis existed in US, Australia has taken the pharmaceutical approach only which would continue for a while.

10:20 – Joshua extrapolated that the inability of federal US government to reach consensus with states on cannabis platform was merely a political game owing to which the issue remains prioritised.

11:58 – In response to a question, Joshua iterated that all American states were supplying cannabis products globally.

12:26 – Joshua spoke about 100 different strains of products which varied in the quality. He clarified that just like Canada and Europe, many people entered the US market readily with absence of any intricate quality control mechanism. Contrarily, in Australia, domestic efforts were in place to produce superior quality cannabis products.

14:47 – Joshua agreed that quality and consistency of supply are major issues in the industry.

23:04 – Joshua declared that the implementation of quality standards for importing cannabis products was essential. Also, these parameters were beneficial for domestic industry who are already following the compliance mechanism.

27:13 – Joshua elucidated the story of US where transition into recreational industry was facilitated by tax money. He believed that there should be an organised process to give companies adequate time to improve quality of their products in Australia.

29:28 – Joshua explained that instead of compounding industry, he mostly dealt with wholesale and international side.

31:11 – Joshua believed that in case of restrictions on compounding, the consumers could suffer.

32:07 – Joshua clarified that the whole world is trying to follow international standards set by Australia to meet export quality parameters.

34:00 – Joshua was of the view that if done right, the branding of Australian made products would be well positioned worldwide as a highest grade product.

External links:

https://www.tga.gov.au/access-medicinal-cannabis-products-using-access-schemes

https://www.tga.gov.au/medicinal-cannabis