“Archaic Laws Holding Back UK Boom,” says leading Cannabis investor.

William Muecke, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Artemis Growth Partners

LONDON, UK – at 10am on Tuesday 12th September, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Industrial Hemp & CBD Products will welcome William Muecke – former managing director and global head of healthcare services investment banking at Goldman Sachs & Co, and current CIO and co-founder of Artemis Growth Partners – to discuss, ‘Investing in UK Industrial Hemp & CBD: What’s Holding Back a Multi-Billion Pound Industry.’

In his talk, Muecke will make it clear that the untapped potential of a thriving UK hemp and CBD industry, spanning diverse sectors from innovative housing insulation to health and wellness offerings, is being held at bay by burdensome regulation and legislation that is now out of line with more modern European and global economies. The staggering UK industry projections include the generation of over 226,000 new jobs, contributing £2.2 billion annually in tax revenue, and fostering ecological and agricultural benefits crucial for achieving our Net Zero commitments by 2050. But without the current laws being amended, Muecke will tell the meeting, investors do not have the confidence that the UK is a safe place to invest their funds and are heading elsewhere.

Wiliam Muecke says:

“The UK is now lagging behind the rest of the world. It still has the chance to be an industry leader, with smart, innovative UK start-up businesses appearing across the medical cannabis, CBD, construction and insulation, and hemp carbon credit sectors. But these businesses are being held back by a lack of enthusiastic investment capital due to outdated and unintended regulations. The UK laws need to adjust, aligning with the rest of the world, to let investors invest and businesses grow.” 

The rest of the world is fast changing its attitudes to the cannabis plant. In the US, the Department of Health and Human Services, at the direction of President Joe Biden, has recently asked the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III on the Controlled Substances Act. And in Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently endorsed a bill legalising cannabis in Germany; the bill will now be examined by Parliament. But legalisation aside, and despite the promising prospects in industrial hemp, CBD and medical cannabis alone, the UK's economic growth in this arena remains hindered, a problem exacerbated by established and traditional industry players with little incentive for change. The APPG has long pushed to have these problems addressed, but to date have found progress blocked.

Nick Morland, CEO of APPG secretariat Tenacious Labs, says:

“The UK must adapt to a rapidly changing world. The Industrial Hemp and CBD industries can help address a great many problems that the UK is facing, and provide a significant boost to the jobs and economy, not least in rural areas. Without these changes, British industrial hemp and CBD businesses remain held back from growth and exporting to the wider world.” 

APPG co-chair, Crispin Blunt MP, who will be chairing this meeting, says:

“We are foregoing serious potential revenue and abandoning early British investors in a sector rich in science, research and jobs that could give the UK global leadership in this bio-science industry sector. I’m beginning to conclude our policy makers are too politically cowardly to grasp this non-existent nettle and it’s easier to do nothing.  We should be ashamed of ourselves. This sector needs intelligent regulatory reform across different departments to enable a potentially large bioscience-based industry, a clearly stated government priority for action, and almost nothing is happening. If this Conservative government won’t act there is not a cat in hell’s chance Starmer’s Labour will, paralysed by fear of its own shadow.  This is something Ministers, civil servants and legislators should be enabling not obstructing as the evidence piles up around them. 

To RSVP to this open meeting, which will be held at 10am, Tuesday 12th September in the Palace of Westminster and on Zoom, please contact secretariat lead Andy Cutbill at appg@tenacious-labs.com

Ends