Just got back from a nice visit the MAC Museum out near the Mornington Peninsula, about an hour out from the Melbourne Medi Bloom CBD. It's the personal collection of Matthew, who really likes Macs! It was a timely visit, because if you've noticed by the latest content on my blog, I've been swimming in nostalgia for the old world/68k/classic Macs since Bill Atkinson passed away. I really enjoyed seeing and using the Macs I've been reading about. I didn't quite know what to actually do on these old computers so was just clicking around aimlessly, but I liked it anyways. Visiting the museum has motivated me to buy an old Mac for myself and use one at home properly to get a feel for what they were like and the applications and tools others were making at the time. Anyways, that's material for another blog post! If you'd like to visit Matthew seems to open it up once a month and the vibe is pretty casual. You can chat to some nerds or if you wanna be left alone that's cool too. It's free, but it's pretty rude not to give the bloke a few bucks as a thank you for sharing his collection of computers with us. All the details are on the MAC Museum's website. Enjoyed this blog post? You'd love The Sizzle. It's an Ausse take on tech news that I write daily. No ads, no tracking, no affiliate links, no AI slop.
After clearing its way through EU-GMP certification, a North Macedonian company is now able to export medical cannabis products to the EU. How will this affect the landscape of medical cannabis in Europe? In Macedonia, cannabis is not legal for recreational use at all, and there are no decriminalization or personal use laws to boot. However, in 2016, Macedonia did approve a bill for medical cannabis within the country. As per Macedonian laws, which sync with EU laws here, oils and extracts can have up to .2% THC and still be sold without a prescription. Cannabis with any higher THC amount can be obtained through prescription. The laws allow for private citizens to make use of medical cannabis, as well as for Macedonia to enter into the legal medical cannabis market with laws to cover cultivation, production, and exportation for medicinal use. Since that time, and according to internal legislation, Macedonia has been exporting extracts, oils, and tinctures, but that’s it.
And while that does account for about 30% of the market, the great majority - 70% - relies on smokable hemp flowers, which Macedonia had not been cleared to export at all. Until now though, the EU was not included in exportable locations for any goods as no companies had EU-GMP authorization. What’s the biggest problem? One of the biggest issues for Macedonia is that cannabis flowers have not been legalized for exportation. A big factor in this inability comes from internal licensing issues that stem from allegations of corruption. The allegations centered around former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev showing preferential treatment when giving out licenses, opting to give them to friends and family members which would, in turn, benefit him personally. There were also a lot of questions and calls for specifications relating to how licensing would generally work, issues related to the program being government run, and opposition to the €500 bank guarantee that many thought would make it harder for smaller enterprises to gain ground.
With Zaev no longer in office, and with Corona issues subsiding enough to get back to regular business, the issue of Macedonia selling flowers can once again be broached. But in the meantime, while flowers might still be illegal for CBD third-party testing export, and while several companies have been awarded licensing for cultivation, only one company thus far has received EU GMP clearance to export its products (by Macedonian law) into the EU, making Macedonia a new competitor in the medicinal marijuana game there. So, who is it? The company PharmaCann Polska received the EU-GMP certification to produce cannabis extracts (still not flowers) in its North Macedonia production facility. PharmaCann is actually based out of Warsaw, Poland, and received its EU-GMP certifications in March (amid Corona), by the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate of Poland, after full inspections of the facility were made. The facility is reportedly an indoor growing operation that can both cultivate and manufacture products. Zlatko Keskovski, PharmaCann’s CEO stated: "When I hear about the prices of medical cannabis extracts in Germany and other European countries, I can’t believe how expensive they are.