Health Canada announces changes to sale authorization of cannabis products to processing licences

Health Canada announces changes to sale authorization of cannabis products to processing licences

Health Canada announced changes to the process of adding sale authorization of cannabis products to processing licences.

As of October 1, 2023, the federal health agency will phase out inspections for authorized activities change requests from processors to add the activity of sale of extract, edible, and topical cannabis products. This change applies to all processing licence holders, micro or standard.

While Health Canada made changes in 2022 to begin granting dried fresh sales licences to all processors, the application process for these sales licence amendments for extract, edible, and topical are still required to be filed through the CTLS.

However, the newly implemented changes do mean that processors will no longer need to request changes to inner and outer labels, no longer need to provide photos of the entire lot, or provide completed packaging records, a master list of SOPs, evidence that packaging meets the child resistance requirements, or proof that each lot or batch has been tested using validated test methods including evidence that test methods have been validated for the appropriate class of cannabis, such as method validation reports.

Despite no longer needing to provide this information as part of the authorized activities change request, processors will still need to adhere to these requirements, which can be verified by Health Canada inspection. Inspections will be organized by using a risk-based approach.

Health Canada says they will update the manage your cannabis licence webpage to reflect these changes.

The federal regulator will also no longer provide an in-person compliance promotion session to processors seeking a sales licence, replacing it with compliance promotion material that will be accessible online.

Licence holders will still be required to submit their Notification of New Cannabis Product (NNCP) 60 days prior to selling extract, edible and topical cannabis products to provincially and territorially authorized retailers and sale for medical purposes licence holders once their licence has been amended.

More information is available here and in the guidance document Overview: Preventive control plan for cannabis extracts and edible cannabis.


The Age of Victimhood: A Paradigm On Its Way Out?

The Age of Victimhood: A Paradigm On Its Way Out?

www.natureofhealing.org

The Age of Victimhood:

A Paradigm On Its Way Out?

By

In a sense, many of us have fallen into a trap of our own making; Victimhood.

Victim mentality is when we believe we have no control over things that happen to us. We are a passive character in our own life.

In this “woe is me” state, victims are co-dependent in relationships. In seeking validation from others, we censor our voices. In favor of expert opinions, we diminish the value of our opinions. We accept the rules from authorities that us them who we are, while forgetting that other people’s opinions are none of our business.

In today’s culture the victim is put on a pedestal.  Victims are the ones who get all the attention. The paradigm that exists today is that if you cry loudly enough, you get your way. Identify yourself as a victim and there are victim Support services and Victims’ rights groups. Is the Age of Victimhood coming to an end anytime soon?

Image by Jean Nomadino from Pixabay

If we create victims of ourselves it is because we are conditioned to believe that we don’t have minds of our own. We’ve been put in groups since the day we were born to follow Groupthink. From the educational system to the political system to the medical system, to entertainment and sports, even the public water system, humans are programmed to think alike.

The public water system adds fluoride to dumb down the masses. Fluoride, added as fluorosilicic acid, is a waste byproduct of the fertilizer industry. It is a known neurotoxin that calcifies the pineal gland. Known as the 3rd eye, the pineal gland connects us, through our etheric body, to our higher self. All systems together form the Matrix. However, most people do not understand how the Matrix operates.

The Holographic Matrix

We are told by theoretical physicists that we live in a hologram. The Holographic Theory is more than twenty years old. Under this theory, a two-dimensional surface is projected onto a three-dimensional world or “light map,” preserving all of its information.

Meanwhile, our universe has four-dimensions, with three dimensions of space and one of time, which we can perceive and access. One would think that if there are dimensions below ours, there are also dimensions above, each with a higher level of consciousness. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Why would scientists put humanity in a box built from electromagnetic frequencies that is a mere projection of a two-dimensional image?

Those who know how to manipulate the Matrix do not tell us that we are the energy that runs the Matrix, just by being us. No laws or instructions are necessary to create on Earth, only imagination. I-magi-nation. In a sense, magic is the tool. We are a world of magis. We manifest through through emotion and intention. As someone once said, Energy flows where attention goes.

Within a hologram there is a Duality Reality. Those who attempt control the flow of energy, the game masters, create groups of opposition to distract players from knowing who they really are:  blue vs. red, democrat vs. republican, essential/necessary vs. nonessential/unnecessary. While Americans believe they have free will, they follow the opinions of political pundits under an illusion of choice. The purpose? To harvest the energy of players.

In the grid of the Matrix, we are complacent, but prone to in fighting. Through our consent to the rules of the Matrix, we stay within the lines, because the authorities- the politicians, priests, professors, doctors, lawyers, presidents-  tell us they are here to protect us from ourselves. Note the word author in authority. By consent, or silent acquiescence, we put down our pens to allow others to write our stories and be responsible for us.

The victim stance is a powerful one. The victim is always morally right, neither responsible or accountable and forever entitled to sympathy. – DA Southern, author

In the holographic Game of Freedom, the game masters tell the players that they are granted more freedoms than other nations, and more rights than other people. The masters omit the fact that inherent rights can never be granted or denied by another.

Rights that are granted are really privileges that can be taken away – the opposite of freedom. However, as game authors, it is their self-imposed right to deceive. The granter of rights is not the game master but the Creator.

Monopoly Game – Rule 11: What if the bank runs out of money? Some players think the Bank is bankrupt if it runs out of money. The Bank never goes bankrupt. To continue playing, use slips of paper to keep track of each player’s banking transactions – until the Bank has enough paper money to operate again. The banker may also issue “new” money on slips of ordinary paper.

Is the Age of Victimhood Coming to an End?

A players, we must play the game better than the game masters, and go beyond the imposed restrictions that serve one group at the expense of everyone else. The game no longer functions if the rules are exposed as baseless. The edges of reality blur and distort if players step outside the lines and dare to question authority.

Most people do not understand how the Matrix operates using the building blocks of electromagnetic frequencies, or energy. Further, we do not realize that as energy beings, we hold the keys to bypass the Matrix programming. By understanding the potential of the human condition, only then do we become the Masters we are born to be.

imagep2722754 from Pixabay” width=”382″ height=”237″>

The Star Trek series reveals a clue of what it is to be human through the phenomenon of the Holodeck, a place of illusion where the crew of the Starship Enterprise can get away by programming a reality of choice.

Since humans are made up of electromagnetic frequencies, we are both biophysical and metaphysical. However, we tend to focus only on the physical when it comes to disease or identity. We fail to look at the bigger picture to see ourselves as energetic beings with a physical body. Made up of atoms, we are mostly energy. Energy can be manipulated.

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile. – The Borg, Star Trek, First Contact

To restrict and homogenize a culture creates a sedate race with a broken self-image that is more malleable and easier to control. When we no longer align with our divine feminine and divine masculine, we become disempowered. We fall out of love. Freedom is lost.

Once we understand our unseen nature, then we have tools to manipulate the Holodeck to bring ourselves out of victimhood.

With open eyes, we see a well-built trap that we have created through our consent. If America, the land of the free, home of the brave has degenerated into the land of the ignorant and home of the cowardly, what is the likely outcome for the rest of the world?

There is always the option of creating a new reality, as there are parallel realities simultaneously manifesting.While everyone is on his own path and timeline, consider these: 1) a path of responsibility, with opportunities at every turn, and 2) a path of no responsibility with limitations structured for safety.

Depending on one’s primary belief system, people will manifest one timeline over the other by their thoughts, beliefs, and actions. As long as we focus on the status quo, the Master-Victim dynamic persists. To be grouped together cancels individual identity.

Everyone is a victim at some point in their life, and there is no doubt that terrible things may have happened to you that were unfair. But seeing yourself as a victim is being focused on the past. Instead, look forward to who you can be today, master of your own destiny. – Alex Blackwell, author

How to Be the Masters

Image by StarGladeVintage from Pixabay

The answer lies within.  As beings of energy who create with Spirit, we can prevent further damage and a darker future. Creation does not happen through genetic modification. Technology is not advancement. Advancement is spiritual development.

Creation happens when we listen to the body, which heals itself using Nature’s tools. Healing the body heals the Earth because the human body is a template of the earth.  We are no more victims of our genes than we are victims of our government. The body frees itself from dis-ease, not by fighting the old, dying, obsolete cells, but by creating new cells while targeting the old cells for removal. The natural state of the body is the vibration of health when the body is in balance.

For humanity to live in balance, we must embody balance by merging our internal, dual aspects, shadow and light, feminine and masculine energies. As individual creators, we fuel ourselves from a light power within, connected to a universal power source, the Sun, that fuels all life on Earth.

The Neoplatonists claimed the Sun was more than a physical ball of hydrogen. As a Being onto itself, the Sun is also psychic and spiritual, just as Earth is, just as we are.  Humanity is an expression of a greater Source.

The Kingdom of  God is within you. Luke 17:21

Therefore, if we can write reality, we can also right reality. We only need to reclaim the rules of the game. In a dual reality, we can choose different labels to become our own Masters.

To shed victimhood is to embody freedom. First we must embody individual freedom, and then we can come together in harmony to express that freedom for humanity. The energy of self-empowerment ripples out to affect those around us, including Earth, until the reality of freedom takes shape.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. – Viktor Frankl

We are not victims of any master when we know that our power comes from within. We are no longer victims when we accept that victimhood is transformed in the heart through self-love. Knowing we are conscious co-creators, we can come together and achieve a new reality simply by choosing to play the part we were born to play.

Five years of legal cannabis: a word from Beena Goldenberg

As we reflect on the past five years of cannabis legalization in Canada, it’s clear that this historic move has been a success for Canadians, cannabis consumers, and our governments alike. We’ve witnessed a remarkable journey from $0 to nearly $5 billion in legal sales annually, capturing an impressive 60 per cent market share. However, this journey has not been without its challenges for the nascent cannabis industry.

As we reach this pivotal five-year mark, it is imperative that our government takes swift action to address the issues that threaten the sustainability of our evolving sector. It must act urgently to slash excise taxes and regulatory fees, elevate the 10 mg cap on edibles to combat the illicit market, and loosen restrictions on consumer communication to destigmatize the industry.

To safeguard the future of legal cannabis and maintain the integrity of our public health and safety objectives, the government must prioritize the financial well-being of this industry. Without adequate support, the illegal cannabis sector will inevitably step in to meet the demand for cannabis products. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to act now to secure the continued success of legalization, ensuring that our shared vision for a responsible and thriving cannabis industry becomes a reality.

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Celebrating five years of growth: Tilray Brands reflects on industry leadership in Canadian cannabis

(Globe Newswire) Toronto — Tilray Brands, Inc., a leading global cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company, is celebrating five years of remarkable growth and industry leadership in the Canadian cannabis market since legalization.

Over the past half-decade, Tilray has emerged as the most robust and leading international cannabis LP in Canada with a cannabis market share of approximately 13.4 per cent, inclusive of recent strategic acquisitions of HEXO Corp. and Truss Beverage Co.

Irwin D. Simon, chairman and CEO, Tilray Brands, Inc. said, “In the span of five years, we have come a long way and despite the many challenges we and our industry have faced, I am proud of what we have created and accomplished across our Canadian cannabis businesses including Aphria, HEXO, Truss Beverages, and Tilray Brands. Over the next five years, we look forward to working with the Canadian government to help strengthen our industry as we have plenty of learnings to capitalize on as we write the next chapter and evolution of Canadian cannabis.”

Mr. Simon continued, “In Canada, we are building the model of a safe and responsible high growth industry that other countries can learn from and emulate as cannabis legalization continues to proliferate across the globe. Tilray Brands is committed to leading the global cannabis industry in quality, innovation, brands, and consumer insight while building long-term shareholder value.”

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Reflecting on the journey, Blair MacNeil, president, Tilray Canada, added, “From the outset, our mission has been deeply understanding our consumers and ensuring we develop brands and products that resonate with both the adult-use and medical markets. This consumer-centric approach has been the cornerstone of our innovation and success, guiding every decision we make and driving our continuous growth. Tilray’s strength in Canada spans across categories; we are ranked #1 in sales for cannabis flower, oils, concentrates, and THC beverages, #2 in pre-rolls, #4 in vape, and among the top 10 in all other major categories. We have grown our Canadian cannabis revenue by 16.5 per cent this past quarter alone and maintained our #1 position in leading cannabis market share.”

Significant milestones marking Tilray’s five-year leadership in the Canadian cannabis industry include the acquisition of Broken Coast in 2018; the monumental business combination of Tilray and Aphria in 2021, creating the Tilray Brands_a global cannabis and CPG leader, as well as the growth and expansion of Tilray’s medical cannabis portfolio encompassing four unique medical brands: Broken Coast, Aphria Medical, Tilray, and Symbios; and the transformative acquisition of HEXO Corp. and acquisition of Truss Beverage Co. earlier this year, further solidifying the company’s market dominance.

Tilray Brands’ comprehensive Canadian cannabis portfolio includes:

— Good Supply: Good Supply is one of Canada’s leading cannabis brands and has been recognized as #1 in flower, and best-selling pre-rolls, vapes, and concentrates, and has become a favourite among consumers and budtenders.

— Redecan is a Canadian cannabis company with over 30 years in agriculture. Redecan’s tools are fresh water and sunshine, farming the way it has been done for hundreds of years.

— Broken Coast is a heritage cannabis brand widely recognized for setting the standard for craft cannabis in Canada.

— CANACA is a proudly Canadian brand that indulges your unapologetic love for Canada and cannabis. We are all about elevated adventures and expanding your horizons.

— Chowie Wowie is a cannabis edible brand that believes edibles should be fun, safe, tasty, and consistent. And most important of all, enjoyed with friends.

— RIFF was born out of the love for a good joint effort. Committed to providing quality cannabis products and encouraging creativity, RIFF has been widely recognized in the Canadian landscape as a brand that has always supported creative explorers and connoisseurs, serving as a leader in curating and contributing to local events and artist showcases that reflect the RIFF lifestyle.

— Solei is a leading cannabis wellness and lifestyle brand with thoughtfully designed products for curating sensorial experiences based on what you need, when you need it, entirely on your terms.

— Original Stash is straightforward and uncomplicated. That’s the way your stash should be. Grown in a controlled environment, Original Stash is a blend of high-quality weed sold for a lot less than you’d expect.

— HEXO flower is sun grown in hybrid greenhouses and is methodically trimmed, dried and cured at HEXO’s flagship facility. Our commitment to quality shines with this flower product, grown and packaged in a highly controlled environment for a consistent and superior consumer experience.

— XMG is one of Canada’s winning cannabis beverage brands offering a range of bold drink flavours for the avid consumer.

— Mollo offers a collection of cannabis infused beverages that embrace clean, crisp, non-alcoholic flavours reminiscent of popular lager profiles, and is best known in Canada for its first-of-its-kind balanced offering of 10mg THC and 10mg CBG.

— Bake Sale All Purpose Flower is a blended product that offers high-quality buds with pungent terpene aromas, approachable THC levels, and a variety of options for consumption.

— The Batch: The Batch believes in keeping cannabis simple and good, serving customers consistently reliable product, with at affordable prices.

— Tilray is the global leader in the advancement of cannabinoid-based medicine, with a keen focus on providing research-backed medical cannabis products to physicians, pharmacies, and patients, around the world.

— Aphria is a producer of medical cannabis products. We are truly powered by sunlight; our quality medical cannabis is 100% greenhouse-grown, allowing for the most natural conditions for quality products.

— Symbios was designed with quality, care, and affordability in mind, to help support patients on their medical and wellness journey.

— A vibrantly Quebecois cannabis brand and champion of inspired, creative living. Dubon offers master-crafted cannabis strains as whole flower and pre-rolls, exclusively available through the Societe quebecoise du cannabis in Quebec (SQDC).

Village Farms International granted 180 day extension to meet NASDAQ minimum bid price requirement

(Globe Newswire) Vancouver — Village Farms International, Inc. announced it received notification from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC that Nasdaq has approved the company’s request for a 180-calendar day extension to regain compliance with the minimum closing bid price of US$1.00 per share listing requirement (NASDAQ Listing Rule 5550(a)(2)).

The extension follows the expiration on October 17, 2023 of the initial 180-calendar day period to regain minimum closing bid price compliance. As a result of the extension, the company now has until April 15, 2024 to regain compliance with the minimum bid requirement.

The notification has no immediate effect on the listing of the company’s common shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market. During the new compliance period, Village Farms common shares will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market. If at any time before April 15, 2024, the bid price of Village Farms’ common shares closes at or above US$1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days, it is expected that Nasdaq would notify the company that it has regained compliance with the minimum bid requirement.

In the event the company does not regain compliance with the minimum bid requirement by April 15, 2024, the company may be subject to delisting of the common shares from the Nasdaq Capital Market, at which time the company may request a review the delisting determination by a Nasdaq Hearings Panel.

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Respecting  Indigenous authority in psychedelics

Respecting Indigenous authority in psychedelics

Disclaimer: Devon Scoble is a British-descended Canadian writer living and working on the traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples. She is grateful for the Indigenous knowledges reflected in this piece and acknowledges any misconstrual of those perspectives as entirely her own. 

A lot can change in eight years. For Sapha, a Persian-Canadian Vancouver Islander who goes by his first name, it’s the difference between days focused on scoring and using alcohol, opiates and stimulants and days devoted to helping others overcome their addictions to those same substances.

“In the throes of addiction” for 16 years, he no longer takes what he calls hard drugs or alcohol. But he does credit the psychedelic drug ayahuasca as a medicine in his healing journey, even though it wasn’t offered at any of the early recovery programs he attended.

“Being a recovering addict and working with psychedelics is very controversial. Most 12-step fellowships and self-help groups are abstinent-based and see psychedelics – even with a therapist – as using drugs,” he says. But in 2015, a conversation with a counsellor at a holistic recovery centre in Saskatchewan gave Sapha the courage to explore an intuition.

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“I told her how I viewed plant medicines as sacred tools for going deeper,” he says.

“And she said, ‘Whatever you do when you leave here, don’t let anybody tell you that that’s wrong. If you’re working with psychedelics in your recovery and doing it with care and guidance and the proper people in your corner supporting you, then there’s nothing wrong with that. Just check in with yourself and your intentions and go forward with that in a good way.’ And so, that’s what I did.”

His recovery journey would lead him through a degree in social work, and, eventually, to becoming a co-founder of Sacred Rebels Recovery, an ayahuasca-assisted addiction recovery retreat in Iquitos, Peru.

Ancient wisdom meets modern medicine

Humans have understood the transformative power of psychedelics for centuries, but Western clinical practitioners largely ignored the predominantly Indigenous plant medicines until the last century. Stories like Sapha’s are increasingly gaining the attention of the mainstream, and across the world, hundreds of clinical trials are underway, studying various psychedelic compounds’ potential to treat depression, PTSD and addiction, fibromyalgia, migraines and more.

The future of psychedelic medicine is exciting, but history is often obscured in the rush to understand these drugs and their clinical applications. It’s a familiar story in Indigenous communities and begs some questions.

When traditional healing meets modern, for-profit medicine, who benefits? And who should benefit? 

N’alaga of N’alaga Consulting

Truth and reconciliation in psychedelic medicine

Truth and reconciliation in Canada has been a bumpy road, and for many non-Indigenous people, a process of unlearning whitewashed histories and reconceptualizing their role in the lands they call home. 

Evidence of unmarked graves in Canadian residential schools is “changing the narrative that most people grew up learning about,” says N’alaga, a Haida and Kwakwaka’wakw land-based cultural empowerment facilitator and the founder of N’alaga Consulting.

“A lot of people are learning about ongoing impacts of colonial genocide, residential school abuses and missing and murdered Indigenous women for the first time, and they’re quite horrified this was not part of what they learned in Western education systems.” 

N’alaga runs and develops allyship workshops for non-Indigenous folks and land-based, culturally-rooted healing programs for Indigenous people. Psychedelics aren’t part of her offerings, but she uses them for her own healing. She has a personal understanding of their potential, and professional advice for anyone who wants to work with them.

“Ayahuasca, peyote and psilocybin are medicines that grow in Indigenous territories,” she says. “For the people who belong in these territories, it’s part of their culture, way of life and connection to the land. If you’re a non-Indigenous person engaging in these practices, the most important thing is to be guided by someone whose culture it belongs to.”

Since access to Indigenously-centred psychedelic healing can be hard to come by – especially in legal, clinical settings – at the very least, she’d like to see reciprocity from anyone who consumes traditionally-Indigenous medicines or their chemical analogues, and especially from anyone who researches or profits from them.

“If I could send a message to anyone in that realm, it would be, ‘How are you giving back to the communities that medicine comes from?’”

A model built on respect

Back in Iquitos, Sapha offers recovery coaching and mentorship for Sacred Rebels Recovery participants. A practising curandero, which loosely translates as shaman or medicine man, Sapha also prepares them for ayahuasca ceremonies. He doesn’t work alone. Maestro Ricardo Amaringo is a Shipibo curandero master, and Sapha’s mentor. Maestro Ricardo taught Sapha how to ask the ayahuasca for guidance, and he blesses and supports Sapha’s continued work with Shipibo traditions on Shipibo land. 

Sapha is mindful that his efforts benefit the local community. He also volunteers at the centre’s permaculture program, which provides local employment and food share programs and nurtures Shipibo medicinal plants, especially ones facing extinction. He also encourages participants who can afford treatment to pay it forward and donate so that a local in need can also attend ceremonies.

“What Sapha and his team are doing is appropriate,” says N’alaga. “They’ve been guided and taught and invited by people whose culture these traditions belong to.”

Sapha and N’alaga give the same advice to non-Indigenous people interested in psychedelic medicine: ask your practitioners how they were trained, if they received blessings from the medicine’s Indigenous communities of origin and what they are doing to give back to those communities.

“Whether it’s done in a Western tradition or South American or any other tradition, at the end of the day what comes first is the ability of the person suffering to experience relief and to experience qualified help and support,” says Sapha. “So I think it’s really up to practitioners to acknowledge the history of the plants, whether it’s psilocybin or ayahuasca or any other medicine, and be part of educating the patient on its origins and history and how they’re working with it in integrity.”