The New Zealand Medicinal Hashish Council (NZMCC) hosted its Trade Day on Oct. 29, 2025 on the EMA in Auckland, bringing collectively sufferers, clinicians, researchers, cultivators, advocates and policymakers for a full-day program centered on connection. The agenda was designed to strengthen hyperlinks throughout a sector spanning prescribing, cultivation, compliance, analysis, and coverage, with periods centered on sensible collaboration and data sharing.
NZMCC Chair Carmen Doran opened the day and positioned connection as a deliberate focus for the Council, significantly as NZMCC’s membership has expanded to incorporate clinicians, rising cultivators and the broader assist system across the sector, together with authorities, suppliers and lecturers. This system moved from a Leaders’ Roundtable on the state of medicinal hashish in New Zealand into regulatory and coverage briefings, earlier than splitting into scientific and trade breakout session pathways within the afternoon.
Leaders’ Roundtable: The State of Medicinal Hashish in New Zealand
Following a Mihi Whakatau, a Māori welcoming ceremony, the Trade Day started with a Leaders’ Roundtable dialogue analyzing the place the medicinal hashish sector presently stands. The panel introduced collectively senior figures from throughout healthcare, regulation and enterprise, together with Terry Teoh, enterprise development associate at New Zealand Commerce and Enterprise (NZTE); Tara Creaven-Capasso, director of regulatory affairs ANZ at MedReleaf Australia; Paul Naske, CEO at Rua Bioscience, a Māori-founded pharmaceutical firm that makes a speciality of the analysis, improvement and sale of medicinal hashish merchandise each domestically and internationally; and Natalie Lowe, CEO of Inexperienced Docs, a New Zealand medicinal hashish clinic community.
The dialogue lined regulatory maturity, affected person entry, prescribing tendencies and the challenges of working in a tightly regulated atmosphere. Teoh described the Trade Day as “an awesome connection level, significantly given NZMCC’s current broadening of membership.” He additionally mirrored on New Zealand’s presence at European Medicinal Hashish Week earlier within the 12 months. “From conversations with the NZ attendees and companions, themes that resonated significantly properly included a accountable and moral ecosystem that places folks first, NZ’s agricultural management heritage, and corporations which can be responsive and scalable,” he says.
Regulatory and Coverage Briefings: Roles, Tasks and Reform
The morning continued with a session referred to as Contained in the Regulatory Framework: Roles, Tasks and Compliance, offered by Tania Jones from the Medicinal Hashish Company. Jones outlined how the Company oversees New Zealand’s medicinal hashish system, strolling by licensing necessities, compliance obligations and the duties of operators throughout cultivation, manufacture and provide.
This was adopted by TGA Session Underway in Australia: Implications for the New Zealand Market, led by Tara Creaven-Capasso, director of regulatory affairs for ANZ of MedReleaf Australia. Drawing on her regulatory expertise throughout the Tasman, Creaven-Capasso defined the scope of the Therapeutic Items Administration’s session course of and mentioned what potential modifications may imply for market alignment, product pathways and future alternatives for New Zealand firms.
The ultimate morning session was delivered by Dr Jacek Kolodziej, coverage director on the New Zealand Drug Basis, who examined safer drug legal guidelines, lived expertise and different coverage approaches. His presentation positioned medicinal hashish inside a broader public well being and drug coverage context.
Afternoon Breakouts: Scientific and Trade Pathways
After lunch, delegates selected between two breakout streams, with many shifting between periods as discussions progressed.
Scientific Pathway
The scientific stream opened with James Yu, pharmacist and co-founder of Ngā Hua Pharmacy, New Zealand’s main impartial specialist pharmacy centered on medicinal hashish, who offered The Significance of Terpene Tailoring. Yu shared affected person case research drawn from dishing out observe, highlighting how totally different terpene profiles and chemovar choice can affect therapy outcomes.
This was adopted by a panel dialogue titled Hashish Challenges in Observe, moderated by Dr Rick Acland. The panel included Dr William Parkyn, Dr Afram Adam, and James Yu, and centered on prescribing confidence, scientific duty and real-world boundaries to entry.
“I used to be impressed with the extent of data and understanding of acceptable prescription amongst delegates,” Acland says. “Sadly, the broader medical fraternity struggles to grasp this advanced pharmacology and its wide-ranging results by modulation of the Endocannabinoid System (ECS). Hopefully, the pool of advocates continues to develop and therefore enhances affected person wellbeing. There’s a good understanding of the antagonistic results that at all times must be appreciated.”
Acland additionally highlighted settlement inside the panel on skilled requirements. “I used to be impressed with the consensus relating to the necessity to adhere to agreed prescription protocols,” he says. He famous concern in regards to the future regulatory atmosphere, referencing authorized experience current within the room. “I used to be additionally impressed that we had a barrister, Adam Holloway, within the viewers who works within the space of medical self-discipline. There’s concern that particular prescribers could get ‘focused’ by Registration our bodies or Faculties sooner or later.”
The scientific pathway concluded with Dr Michael Murphy, Medical Advisor at CannaPlus+ and Board Member of the ANZCCP, presenting The ANZCCP Prescribing Tips, an replace on present finest observe and rising proof.
Trade Pathway
The trade stream centered on innovation, sustainability and long-term planning.
Tua Waaku of Bluelab opened the pathway with Analysis and New Information for Cultivation, presenting findings on gentle spectrum and plant improvement. Drawing on Bluelab’s expertise designing monitoring and management instruments for growers, the session explored how precision measurement can assist constant outcomes.
Dr Sam Baldwin of the Bioresource Institute adopted with Indoor Crops 30 Years within the Future, analyzing how advances in know-how, environmental constraints and useful resource effectivity could reshape cultivation fashions over the approaching many years.
Power issues had been addressed by Karan Tikku of Genesis Power in Electrical energy: Challenges and Alternatives, the place he outlined price pressures going through cultivators and sensible pathways to scale back vitality use.
The trade pathway concluded with Terry Teoh of New Zealand Commerce and Enterprise presenting Constructing an Export-Prepared Enterprise, specializing in scalability, regulatory preparedness and worldwide market expectations.
Sector Reflections: Expertise From the Early Days
Though now retired from scientific observe, Dr Rick Acland says he stays carefully related to the medicinal hashish sector. His involvement dates again to the early 2000s.“Regardless of being a retired practitioner, I nonetheless really feel very a lot related with this trade,” he says. “My historical past with medicinal hashish goes again to the early 2000s after I was a member of the Medicines Evaluation Advisory Committee (MAAC) of the Ministry of Well being.”
Acland described his position in assessing Sativex in 2006. “At my final assembly (2006), I used to be liable for the evaluation of Sativex for registration,” he says. “I managed to steer my fellow committee members that there was sufficient convincing information to approve it for spasticity of MS. There have been quite a lot of sceptics who did take some cajoling to get Sativex ‘throughout the road’.”
Wanting again almost twenty years later, he stated the choice had held up. “I feel that with the passage of just about 20 years, our resolution was right, and pleasingly, any fears that had been raised at that assembly haven’t eventuated, aside from the prohibitive price of the agent,” he says.
Acland additionally mirrored on his scientific background. “All through my medical profession, I’ve labored in ache and latterly in spinal wire damage rehabilitation,” he says. “Steadily, I famous the numerous sufferers who gained helpful symptom reduction from leisure use.”
He described the shift that adopted authorized prescribing. “Apparently, as soon as medicinal hashish turned out there by prescription, I used to be ‘banned’ by one of many organizations I consulted for from having any dialog relating to hashish,” Acland says. “It has involved me that the Ache Society has taken such a unfavourable method, in all probability due to the opioid epidemic within the USA, regardless of there being a rising stage of proof exhibiting a discount in opioid use with the introduction of prescription hashish.”
From a sponsor perspective, Arjun Bhargava, co-founder of modern beverage model Terps & Co, says the Trade Day mirrored a broader shift in how the sector is considering hashish formulation and affected person expertise.
“It was heartening to see that terpenes, past simply THC and CBD, are lastly getting the eye they deserve,” Bhargava says. “Throughout the worth chain, from pharmacists to producers, there’s a rising appreciation for a way pivotal they’re and the way profoundly they form the hashish expertise.”
Wanting Forward
In reflecting on the day, Doran pointed to the connections shaped throughout the room as probably the most significant consequence. “For me, the standout second was seeing teams of individuals speaking collectively after lunch who wouldn’t often meet of their day-to-day work,” she says. “With the ability to join cultivators selecting which strains to commercialize with prescribing medical doctors who hear immediately from sufferers about what works was extremely highly effective.”
Doran additionally famous that NZMCC held its AGM as a part of the Trade Day, together with the election of recent board members meant to mirror the Council’s expanded membership base. Wanting forward, she stated NZMCC plans to determine working teams in 2026 centered on precedence areas for the sector, together with export markets and affected person entry. “We’ll be diving into points that form the trade right here at dwelling, but in addition as we glance to export markets and assist sufferers in New Zealand and internationally,” she says.
As the height consultant group for the medicinal hashish sector centered on equitable and inexpensive entry to cannabinoid-based medicines, the NZMCC Trade Day was the right alternative to bolster collaboration as the inspiration for future progress.
