Portugal Cannabis Market

Population (m)	10.3
GDP (€b)	184.9
Total Healthcare Expenditure (€b)	16.6
Total Beauty & Well being Expenditure (€b)	1.28
Alcohol Consumption (Litres Per Capita Per Year)	12.3
Prevalence of Tobacco Users (%)	22.7
Number of Cannabis Users (m)	0.2

Cannabis in Portugal was decriminalized in 2001, but it later lagged behind internationally in legalising cannabis for medical purposes.

The Portuguese cannabis market opened in 2018 when, on June 15, 2018, the Portuguese Parliament approved the use of cannabis for medical purposes, and Decree No. 8 was published in the official gazette on 15 January 2019 creating new legislation governing the cultivation, extraction, commercial preparation, local distribution, import and export, transit and sale of cannabis.

Infarmed have provided a list of conditions qualifying for medical cannabis, given that all conventional treatment methods have been unsuccessful:

Spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injuries
Nausea and vomiting resulting from chemotherapy, radiotherapy and combined HIV therapy and hepatitis C medication
Appetite stimulation in palliative care of the patient undergoing oncological or AIDS treatment
Chronic pain associated with oncological or nervous system conditions such as neuropathic pain caused by nerve damage, phantom limb pain, trigeminal neuralgia, or after herpes zoster infection
Gilles de la Tourette syndrome
Epilepsy and treatment of severe seizure disorders in childhood such as the Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes
Therapeutically resistant glaucoma

Tilray was awarded a license to cultivate, import and export bulk medical cannabis in July 2017 by the Portuguese National Authority of Medicines and Health Products. “The 60-acre campus includes a 65,000-square-foot outdoor cultivation plot, which was harvested in the fall of 2018, a 108,000-square-foot greenhouse with a first harvest completed in February 2019, and a 66,000-square-foot manufacturing facility with an expected completion date in the early part of the second quarter of 2019,” the filing stated.

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Aurora Cannabis Inc, based in Edmonton, Alberta, on February 21, 2019, has signed an agreement to acquire a 51% ownership stake in Gaia Pharma, a Portuguese-based company with plans to develop a local facility to produce medical cannabis and cannabis-derivative products. The first phase of the facility is expected to have a production capacity of approximately 2,000 kg per annum, increasing to 4,000 kg per annum upon completion of the second phase.

Holigen, a Portuguese company, is in the final stages of obtaining a license. The license will permit it to produce more than 500,000 kilograms per year on a 72ha plot in the Alentejo region. It is investing about €40 million in the project and sold a 19.8% stake to the Canadian firm Flowr.

In June 2021, during a Parliamentary debate two political parties in Portugal each presented proposals (the Left Bloc party’s Bill 859 and the Liberal Initiative party’s Bill 862) for legalization of cultivation, production, distribution, and consumption of adult-use cannabis.

According to the sixth edition of the European Cannabis Report – produced by London-based advisory group Prohibition Partners – Portugal cannabis market could be the second-largest adult-use cannabis market in Europe by way of sales, behind the Netherlands.

Cannabis and Hemp Cultivation and Processing Business Plan Sample, Portugal

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