Since medical cannabis became legal in the UK in 2018, over 89,000 people have received prescriptions from private cannabis clinics. This number is now believed to be rising by 1000 every month. But retention rate is low, because patients aren’t happy - despite being 5 years in with patients flocking to access cannabis, there’s still a lot consumers don’t love about this nascent industry.
Quality of product is still an issue raised time and again. Although many say things have improved, it’s not uncommon for patients to voice the opinion that cannabis from the legacy market often far outshines that which is legally available. Irradiation of cannabis to eliminate mold and pests is something often discussed with great concern (although, there are now some non-irradiated plants now making it to UK dispensaries). Lack of transparency and unreliable supply chains due to there being no UK-cultivated flower available are both serious issues. And, perhaps most importantly, patients frequently say they feel unthought of - treated as a commodity while being given a poor choice of outdated genetics for their needs at a premium price.
Be Connected With Your Medicine
This isn’t a good look. When it comes to manufacturing (or growing) medicines, patients must always come first. Furthermore, their needs must be understood and met. And this is exactly what the founders of the UK’s first-ever community-led medical cannabis grow, Grow Lab Organics (GLO), say is the foundation of their business. It’s been years in the making, but now entrepreneurs Alex Fray, Charlie Lyons, and Charlie Price have partnered up with Europe’s largest cannabis patient group, Cancard, and the groundbreaking business is well on its way.
“When we met Carly [the founder of Cancard] it was a perfect meeting of minds.” Explains Grow Lab Organics CEO, Alex Fray. “Her ethos and values resonated strongly with our philosophy and what we were trying to achieve: to cultivate the plant and create products to really help people. And to do it in an inclusive way."
Have Your Voice Heard
The cannabis community will make up to 25% of the Grow Lab Organics shareholders. Patients have been invited to invest any amount over £100 into the company alongside celebrity seed funders Saul Milton (Chase & Status) and Producer Wilkinson. For this, patients not only get a piece of the pie in dividends but are wholly involved in making the big decisions via a voting system.
Carly Barton, founder of Cancard and Chief Community Officer at Grow Lab Organics, feels strongly that patients should be allowed to grow their own medicine. But she believes that under our current government, this will never happen. A patient-led community grow is, in her opinion, the next best thing.
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“We ran a survey with Cancard and found that 91% of our members wanted a community grow. Against all odds, we’ve made that happen.” Beams Carly. “Being able to offer these people some ownership over their health and future is so empowering, for all of us. Through a voting system, we’ll be asking all of our shareholders to make operational decisions, vote on the genetics we use, and help us develop the products for them. They're going to get a reduction in their costs, too, be able to walk through the facilities for full transparency, and be first hear about job opportunities.”
Although both Carly and Alex agree that there’s an undeniable dark side to the illicit cannabis market, they both appreciate that many people deemed criminal are in reality the UK’s top expertsin growing and extracting cannabis. As such, in another groundbreaking move, GLO is set to become the first ever UK medical cannabis grow to hire straight from the legacy market.
“It’s an act of social justice,” says Fray “And it will also help us ensure patients get the highest quality medicine possible. Cannabis that's grown by real experts with years of experience and knowledge surrounding the plant.”
It’s only over the last 100 years that cannabis has been illegal. During that time many people have been unfairly treated, but we’re now seeing a huge shift in perspective. Fray says that legitimising their work is a core value of GLO: “It would be tremendously unfair it those who have been criminalised, whether patients or growers, to be left behind.”
The expertise of GLO’s criminalised employees has already taken them down a unique route, as they prepare to cultivate cannabis in living soil, using organic methods and no irradiation.
As the first and currently the only cannabis grow to be approved on the Isle of Man, it’s been a tough journey so far and challenges still lie ahead. But GLO has now secured the full suite of licenses including cultivation, processing finished products, import, export, and r&d, as well as £4 million in investment. They are emphatic about their dedication to transforming the UK medical cannabis industry into a truly patient-led landscape.
As part of this, they have built a technology product called the ‘GLOchain’, which helps to provide complete transparency of their inner workings.
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“Through GLOchain, shareholders can track the lifecycle temperature, humidity, vapour pressure deficit, and every other minute detail for each cloned plant.” Says Fray “This provides a lot of supply chain control, which is reassuring to regulators. It also gives us Operational Insights over each grow room, because we’re setting up multiple grow rooms, each with a different climate inside them so we can change the environment to encourage different cultivars to express in different ways.”
All finished products will come with a code so that patients can also access a lot of this information.
While the results of Grow Lab Organics are yet to be seen, they’re now poised to plant their first seeds in the next few months and there’s no doubt the founding team has heart. The first products are set to hit the market in around 18 months, while imported products will arrive this summer. The results are great news for UK medical cannabis.
“We've always wanted to democratise access to cannabis and build our own community, within the cannabis community, where patient views are fully taken into account.” Says, Fray. “Finally, with GLO, we’re turning that dream into a reality.”