Clearing the smoke

For the first time, Australia is getting industry awards “to honour Australian cannabis and hemp pioneers”

With recent provisions for access to medical cannabis and hemp in Australia, the inaugural Cannabis Industry Awards Australia have been launched this year to “recognise contributions made by both by companies and activists in promoting the cannabis industry”.

The awards will be split into ‘Community’ and ‘Business’ segments with a total of 42 award categories.

Examples of business award categories include Business of the Year, Product of the Year, Service of the Year, Doctor of the Year (for doctors who are leading the way for patient access and cannabis education), Best Tech Award and Dispensary of the Year.

Meanwhile examples of the community awards include Activist of the Year, Advocate of the Year (for public figures and influencers advancing cannabis law reform), Compassion Award and Stoner of the Year, among others.

Winners will be announced on 1 August 2019.

Judges include Sharlene Mavor from Medical Cannabis Research Australia, Carol Ireland from Epilepsy Action Australia and Blaise Bratter from MGC Pharmaceuticals, alongside several others.

“We were worried that the decades of hard work and persecution on activists was going to be lost to big business,” said awards founder and cannabis entrepreneur, Benjamin Jesse.

“The awards recognise the medical, recreational, and ancillary sectors and endeavour to represent our wonderfully complex and vibrant industry to the rest of Australia – and indeed to the world,” he said.

With the advent of medicinal cannabis, the industry has begun to boom and experts predict it will eventually be worth $5 billion per year, said Mr Jesse.

Originally published here: https://ajp.com.au/news/clearing-the-smoke/