Members of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), KOPAC and Dioscorides Global Holdings (DGH) were joined by the Minister of Health for the Czech Republic recently to announce the establishment of a new research center, the International Cannabis and Cannabinoid Institute (ICCI) – intended to foster evidence-based exploration with a modern scientific approach to refine the therapeutic applicability of cannabis-based medicines in the Czech Republic. ICCI will identify, coordinate and support global research priorities for the advancement of cannabis and cannabinoid treatments through a multidisciplinary evidence based approach that incorporates innovative tools and approaches.

Over the last year or so, the level of innovation within the cannabis industry has reached staggering heights, showing that the industry is ready to take itself to the world stage.

While we can’t yet review any of these things for quality assurance, we can comment on the innovation factor!

#1) CBD Chewing Gum

CBD gum could potentially be a much more efficient delivery system than regular edibles.

The truck was intercepted as they leave Andalusia …

A tonne of cannabis resin was seized on Monday in Biriatou (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), near the Spanish border, hidden in barrels of olives  on a lorry registered in Spain, it has been reported on Wednesday by Customs officials.

Customs officers intercepted the truck on Monday afternoon, when he came from Andalusia and was carrying 93 barrels of olives  to the Netherlands.

“After canvassing several tons, customs encounter resistance at one of the barrels.Under the  olives, they discovered clear bags containing herbal cannabis and cannabis resin bales, “said the General Directorate of Customs in a statement.

AXIM Biotechnologies, a small, Manhattan-based company with ties to the Netherlands, says it has a trump card in its quest to develop a cannabis-based chewing gum to ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

The company says it will be able to price its gum cheaper than a major competitor after securing a "significant" discount on cannabis made available by the Dutch government.

To be sure, AXIM has a long way to go before its Medchew Rx gum - still in development - will be a viable alternative to an under-the-tongue spray developed by GW Pharmaceuticals.

That spray, Sativex, is already approved in 27 countries - though not in the US, where cannabis remains prohibited under federal law.

Marijuana producers in the southern region of Brabant have an annual turnover of around €1bn, according to police and justice ministry estimates.

They say the region has between 5,500 and 8,800 plantations, producing over 340 tonnes of the plant a year, local broadcaster Omroep Brabant reports.

‘Locals don’t smoke that much, so most of it is exported,’ a police spokesman said.

The figures were revealed in a special broadcast to highlight the region’s drugs industry.

On Friday the 11^th of December 2015 John Sinclair was invited for a poetry reading, including a Q&A, in De Vrijplaats (the Sanctuary) in Leiden, the Netherlands. One day earlier it was exactly 44 years ago that John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed Lennon’s eponymous song about John Sinclair’s unjust imprisonment during a Freedom Rally, organized in response to the incarceration of Sinclair for possession and supplying of cannabis. Three days later he was freed from prison.

Sensi Seeds would like to reflect on this special moment in counterculture and cannabis activism history by bringing the following to your attention.

It's a sunny day in Bangkok. The wet season has finally made way to the dry and warm Thai winter. The city is calm, awaiting the herds of tourists who will arrive in December. It's even quiet at the normally buzzing Erawan shrine, in the centre of the city. This was the place where a bomb went off last August, killing more than twenty people. Since the attack, the shrine has become even more popular with tourists.

By Nicolas Delaunay

Once in his greenhouse in a remote Dutch village, Doede de Jong proudly nurtured a thriving cannabis crop to sell to local users. Now only five plants remain, after the police moved in.

Yet the 66-year-old Dutchman remains unbowed after symbolically winning a court case despite deliberately flouting the country's liberal drugs laws.

In a verdict that could have major implications for cannabis growers in The Netherlands, a court last month found De Jong guilty of breaking the law, which allows individuals to grow a maximum of only five plants each.

Dutch municipalities are renewing their efforts to end a nationwide ban on regulated cannabis cultivation. The Association of Dutch Municipalities is advocating for the introduction of a municipal permits system that gives the government control over the entire cannabis chain – sale, use and production.

This is according to the report on an eight month’s long study done by an Association work group, consisting of seven mayors and an alderman, the Volkskrant reports. The newspaper calls this the local authorities’ most serious attempt to get rid of the current tolerance policy, which states that cannabis may be sold and used in coffee shops, but the cultivation is illegal.

A narrow majority of MPs oppose any efforts to introduce some form of regulated marijuana cultivation in the Netherlands, to head off the involvement of organised crime, the Volkskrant says on Tuesday.

On Monday, the local authority association VNG urged the government to set up a licencing system to supply the country’s cannabis cafes, where small amounts of soft drugs can be bought and sold.

‘The current situation cannot continue,’ Monday’s report states. ‘As local officials, we are experiencing major social problems.’