Israel Desks - February 2020 Edition

33 activities may be undertaken by the company’s broker without falling foul of the MDA 1971, or for that matter the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering etc. Regulations 2017 (which address the handling of money that is deemed to be the proceeds of crime). That being said, private fundraising, investments and acquisitions in the cannabis sector have been active in the last two years, with interest in the United Kingdom and Europe driven from North America and Canada. A relatively recent, yet now frequently employed, device in the UK is for a promoter or investor in the cannabis sector to file a “suspicious activity report” (SAR) with the UK’s National Crime Agency. This mechanism has existed for a number of years and is there to enable persons to apply for clearance to continue to act or deal in a specific commercial situation where the participation of a third party with a criminal or suspect past is expected. The NCA has 7 days by law within which to respond, and no response amounts to a presumed clearance. In consequence, promoters and investors are filing SARs to report themselves. The lack of a response within the compliance window clears their proposed transactions; receipt of a negative response is not incriminating, and simply means that the proposed transaction would not proceed. This may not have been what the SAR regime was first designed to achieve, but it has been a useful tool, and the routine non-response of the NCA to quite a number of these filings does tend to indicate the way in which the matter of policy in the UK is proceeding. Industrycommentatorspredict that continuedsocial andpolitical pressures, EU level reform and increased awareness of the health benefits of medicinal cannabis all mean that the European markets will begin to follow the trends of Canadian and US markets which together had an estimated value of US$10.6 billion in 2019. The European cannabis market is set to become the largest over the next five to ten years with the European medicinal cannabis market estimated to be worth €58 billion by 2028. Memery Crystal and the Cannabis Sector Memery Crystal has been at the centre of legal advice to the UK cannabis sector. Our recent experience includes: » » Advising Ananda PLC, a cannabis investment vehicle, on its NEX listing; » » Being appointed by MGC Pharma, a multinational medical cannabis business, on its London Stock Exchange listing;