Marijuana Business Magazine September 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | September 2019 88 What’s the holdup with the medical cannabis sector in Mexico? The new government has not yet taken the responsibility of (the regulatory agency, Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks) COFEPRIS. They have appointed one guy there who doesn’t know anything about regulations and doesn’t know anything about, specifically, cannabis. How exactly is that holding up the industry? He’s not receiving visitors. He’s not promoting dialogue. He’s not working with industry. That’s taking a lot of time and delaying the most important regulatory decisions. There are billions (of dollars) coming into the medical indus- try (globally), and Mexico is not benefiting from that. The soon- er we can sit down with this guy, the better. We want to let him know our experiences in other parts of the world. What business is like there, and how we can work within the regulations. What important decisions still need to be made in Mexico? The regulations. The law approved the medical use of mar- ijuana. To operate a law, you always need regulations. You cannot move into the market without regulations. That’s what we’re waiting for. That’s the bottleneck that’s delaying the whole industry. Once the regulations come to be, (the country) will immediately proceed with recreational use. So, both will come to be very soon. How can businesses lay the groundwork to commercialize their medical cannabis products before the regulations are active? You forecast, envision, get your distribution channel ready. Who’s your retail partner? Then, when the products are ready, you can put them in the distribution channel. Clinics, too. We’re very confident things will happen. We have such high confidence and conviction this is going to happen that (Khiron is) already investing a lot of money opening offices, hiring executives, holding a lot of seminars and culture-building with doctors, hospital directors, health authorities and citizens. In Mexico, we are doing everything we can to be prepared and ready to start as soon as the regulations are released. This interview was edited for length and clarity. We Want to Hear From You Let us know what you thought about this special international report by emailing magazine@mjbizdaily.com. Vicente Fox was president of Mexico from 2000 until 2006. Photo by Rodrigo Olivares Growing Momentum