{"id":10088,"date":"2024-03-12T12:31:16","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=5984460"},"modified":"2024-03-12T12:31:16","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:31:16","slug":"colorado-edibles-maker-partners-with-swiss-company-to-bring-cannabis-gummies-to-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-edibles-maker-partners-with-swiss-company-to-bring-cannabis-gummies-to-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado edibles maker partners with Swiss company to bring cannabis gummies to Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-edibles-maker-partners-with-swiss-company-to-bring-cannabis-gummies-to-europe\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Colorado-born cannabis edibles will soon reach international consumers.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Boulder\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wanabrands.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wana Brands<\/a> announced a partnership with Swiss company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alpengroup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alpen Group<\/a>, which will manufacture THC gummies using Wana\u2019s formulations and sell them in Switzerland. The Wana Classic gummies will be available there in three flavors by the end of the year, according to CEO Nancy Whiteman.<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana is not widely available in Switzerland; however, it is legal in limited capacities.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5984445\" class=\"wp-caption alignright size-article_inline_half\"><img class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/colorado-edibles-maker-partners-with-swiss-company-to-bring-cannabis-gummies-to-europe.jpg\" alt=\"The Wana Brands team recently visited Alpen Group in Switzerland to kick off their partnership. CEO and founder Nancy Whiteman said Wana will return to Switzerland soon to train Alpen Group's staff on making its signature edibles. (Provided By Wana Brands)\" width=\"496\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/colorado-edibles-maker-partners-with-swiss-company-to-bring-cannabis-gummies-to-europe.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"5984445\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/colorado-edibles-maker-partners-with-swiss-company-to-bring-cannabis-gummies-to-europe.jpg 620w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/TDP-Z-wanabrands-01.jpg?fit=310%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 310w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Wana Brands team recently visited Alpen Group in Switzerland to kick off their partnership. CEO Nancy Whiteman said Wana will return to Switzerland soon to train Alpen Group\u2019s staff on making its signature edibles. (Provided By Wana Brands)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2021, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bag.admin.ch\/bag\/en\/home\/gesetze-und-bewilligungen\/gesuche-bewilligungen\/ausnahmebewilligungen-bewilligungen-betmg\/bewilligungen-pilotversuche-betmg.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Swiss government authorized \u201cnon-medicinal\u201d cannabis sales<\/a> as part of a nationwide experiment to learn more about consumers and the market. Companies there can propose a pilot program that both makes weed available to residents and also studies the potential impacts of legalization and consumption in some way.<\/p>\n<p>Sales are permitted through pharmacies, dispensaries or social clubs, and companies collect data to support their study topic. The government is specifically interested in the impact of recreational marijuana on consumers\u2019 physical and mental health, their performance and productivity, how it shapes consumption patterns, effects specific to socioeconomic factors, insights into specific drug markets, and impacts on youth protection, public order and safety.<\/p>\n<p>Whiteman said Alpen Group plans to establish multiple pilot programs and solicited Wana as its \u201cpartner for all things edibles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe actually have a team going over in the next month or so to train their team on how to make the gummies,\u201d she said, adding the edibles will be made by Alpen Group\u2019s pharmaceutical arm, Aplex Pharma.<\/p>\n<p>Although Alpen Group is licensing Wana\u2019s proprietary formulations, the edibles will be slightly different from those available in Colorado. Stateside Wana uses distillate, a concentrated form of THC, to create its gummies. In Switzerland, they will be manufactured using marijuana flower.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Swiss program is quite interesting because the flower has to be grown in Switzerland and it has to be organic, and it has to be grown in a greenhouse,\u201d Whiteman said.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, Alpen Group will follow Wana\u2019s standard operating procedures and produce a product \u201calmost exactly the same\u201d as you can get locally, she added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlpen Group is proud to join forces with the world-renowned cannabis edibles group, Wana Brands. As we embark on a journey of innovation and expansion, we look forward to serving as the epicenter of their global operations,\u201d said Todd Boren, co-founder and CEO of Alpen Group, in a statement.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\"> <\/aside>\n<p>Whiteman recently traveled to Alpen Group\u2019s headquarters in Lugano, Switzerland and noted that the Swiss cannabis market feels like the early stages of legalization in Colorado. (Wana Brands was founded in 2010 when only medical cannabis was legal.) However, in some ways, it seems more progressive than the United States, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Because the federal government implemented this experimental program, the Swiss banking system is prepared for consumer transactions, Whiteman said. Additionally, each pilot program can accept up to 5,000 consumers, so cannabis companies will only produce enough product to feed current demand \u2013 not excess. Switzerland also prohibits indoor grows, which will reduce the carbon impact of growing, she added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe other thing that is different \u2014 and I would say enlightened \u2014 is that they haven\u2019t put a huge taxation burden on the program, so there\u2019s no what we would call in the United States, \u2018sin tax\u2019 like you have on alcohol or tobacco or cannabis,\u201d Whiteman said. \u201cSo part of what they are trying to understand is what would it take to have people move from the black market to the legal market? That means they don\u2019t want to set up a (situation) where the taxes create a pricing structure that disincentivizes people from continuing to buy from black market sources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Whiteman believes Switzerland\u2019s program will pave the way for recreational legalization elsewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlready we\u2019re starting to see other European countries following with a pilot program-type approach so they can step into the adult-use market intelligently,\u201d she said. \u201cI think Switzerland is going to be a model for a lot of the European countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/newsletter-signup\/in-the-know\">Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Colorado-born cannabis edibles will soon reach international consumers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,52,6811,7143,1547,10621,7938,4995,77,9,5019,1,3,2114,18,7072,6923,61,1736],"tags":[5063,2632,6816,7144,4115,10622,7939,4996,2655,5022,4682,2622,7073,6924],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10088"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}