Malta’s Cannabiz World Summit brings international reps together

Malta’s first Medical Cannabiz World Summit attracted more than 1,500 participants from complementary business sectors working on driving the medical cannabis sector forward, according to a press statement sent to Business Malta. Malta Week — as the organisers call it — closes off with the AIBC Summit Malta on 7-8 November.

Medical Cannabiz World Summit keynotes and panel debates discussed topics such as regulation in different territories around the world and patient charters to ensure best practice in healthcare when prescribing medical cannabis.

“The quality of medical cannabis preparations is of primary concern and advances in chemistry and tech as well as in-depth study of endocannabinoid systems are mitigating some of the challenges in the field, including standardisation concerns,” said Maltese MP Deo Debattista during the first day of the event.

“Regulation of cannabis for medicinal and research purposes in Malta follows a route comparable to that implemented for the pharmaceutical industry and controlled medicines,” the MP added.

“Everyone is talking about cannabis regulation, but what will the industry look like post-regulation? One thing is clear: the big whales will enter and dominate,” said CMTREX Founder-CEO Saul Singer in a different speech.

Malta Enterprise’s Marion Zammit said that “the process for obtaining a licence has been kept clear and transparent and the evaluation process is rigorous and scrutinous.”

CannaKids CEO Tracy Ryan said the pursuit of medical cannabis as a treatment for her daughter had played a huge role in what she calls a miracle story. “The doctors said we cannot explain what we are seeing, we would like to give the credit to medical cannabis,” she described.

While medical cannabis is gaining ground internationally, Europe has traditionally been seen as a slow-adopter: in some countries talking about cannabis is still stigmatised. “We are living in a schizophrenic situation where the industry in medical cannabis is growing very fast, while in Europe, research in cannabinoids has really been slowed down by stigma,” said Professor of Psychology at the University of Malta Giuseppe di Giovanni.

As part of Malta Week, the AIBC Summit Malta is taking place on 7-8 November, exploring emerging technologies such as distributed ledger technologies (DLT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide unique solutions to any industry.

“We made it our intention to be at the forefront of this exciting new success story for medical cannabis and to create an environment where deals can be made and the global industry can flourish,” said Eman Pulis, Founder and CEO of organiser SiGMA Group.

“We are proud to play an integral role, planting the seeds of growth for so many diverse contributors to the medical cannabis sector. We’re not just part of the conversation—we’re starting the conversation,” he added.

SiGMA Group is now taking the medical cannabis expo to South East Asia in June 2020. The event will be closely linked to SiGMA Group’s sister show—AIBC Summit—bringing blockchain and medical cannabis together, as well as bridging continents between east and west.