Cyprus Cannabis Association (CYCA) ANDRIA ANDREOU President
Q What attracted you to the law? From an early age, I cannot recall ever thinking of entering any other profession except the law. That is primarily due to parental influence and guidance, for which I will be forever grateful; the opportunities and challenges offered within the profession for self-growth and business development are endless and have stood me in good stead. Q You are the President of the Cyprus Cannabis association. How and why did you get into this area. Surely for a lawyer it might not be great for a career? On the contrary, my involvement in the cannabis sector has positively raised my profile, created a whole new local and international network and stream of possibilities. Lawyers are primely positioned to take advantage of the broad range of legal issues surrounding the industry. We are the first port of call for any clients seeking to enter the space so career prospects for any lawyer are extremely promising. Thoughts about cannabis and its potential health benefits started to develop after speaking with a neighbour a few years ago whose husband unfortunately was dying of cancer – the lady was keen to help him and complained about inaccessibility and high cost of cannabis oil which she claimed was the only product that could possibly alleviate his pain and suffering. Shortly after that in March of 2019, I took a business trip to South Africa when Athos Group Cyprus was instructed to set-up two Cyprus holding structures the main purpose of which was to cultivate hemp and medical cannabis via their subsidiaries based in Africa. That is when the intrigue and excitement began. On returning to Cyprus to investigate the status of cannabis here, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that already we had legislation in place for hemp and medical cannabis production. Combined with extensive online research I was easily convinced that cannabis will undoubtedly revolutionise the world and decided to play an active role in that journey. In April 2019 I took the initiative of forming the Cyprus Cannabis Association (‘CYCA’) and with
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support from other strong founding members as well as the Cyprus Chamber & Commerce & Industry the Association was registered under its auspices in September 2019. CYCA’s main purpose is to lead the collective of individuals and companies that will build the cannabis eco-system in Cyprus and advance the interests of a responsible, compliant, transparent, and high-quality cannabis industry by (inter alia) educating, connecting, and lobbying. Since then cannabis has gone from being a highly controversial topic with very little information or movement locally to us seeing a surge of interest with CBD stores opening one after the other to accommodate high consumer and investor demand; the Cyprus government contracting recently with Panaxia Israel to import medical cannabis products; articles and news reports appearing regularly in the press. The word is surely spreading fast and furiously, thankfully. CYCA benefits also from being a member of the ‘European Industrial Hemp Association’ www.eiha.org - founded in 2005 with offices in Brussels and Cologne it is the only pan-European membership organisation in the industrial hemp sector. Their primary objective is to monitor EU hemp related policies and provide EU decision makers with accurate and reliable information across different spheres of competencies. EIHA is currently monitoring the following policies: CAP reform, hemp extracts/novel food regulation; THC limits in feed and food; life cycle assessment of hemp materials; CO2 impacts; environmental concerns and cosmetics. In addition, I am a founding partner of Global Go Cyprus which is a subsidiary of Athos Group www.athos-group.com/en/ - a multi-disciplinary family office headquartered in Switzerland offering wealth management, trust and corporate services to private clients, entrepreneurs and family owned businesses. Global Go www.globalgo.consulting facilitates the expansion of hemp and cannabis companies and their investments across borders. It is powered by a team of cannabis industry pioneers and world-class consultants operating from offices across the world. We help leading cannabis funds and companies assess
