this is bbc news, the headlines. the us military says an army logistics ship carrying parts for a temporary floating pier is heading to gaza, as part of plans to deliver humanitarian aid by sea. separately, a spanish charity says a ship carrying two hundred tonnes of food for gaza is set to depart from cyprus. president biden and his republican rival donald trump have been on the campaign trail in georgia — a crucial battleground state in november's presidential election. portugal heads to the polls in a snap election. neither the opposition centre—right democratic alliance nor the governing socialists are expected to win a decisive majority. hollywood's biggest night kicks off later with the oscars and all eyes

will be on oppenheimer to see if it collects the most gongs. now on bbc news it is time for talking business. hello, everybody. a very warm welcome to talking business weekly with me, aaron hazelhurst. let's go and take a look at what's on the show. translation: people have been using cannabis for as long as you can remember for millennia. and nothing will stop them, no prohibition. and that's why they should be able to do it safely. yep. the money in marijuana. we're going to take a look into the big business of cannabis as germany becomes the latest in a string of countries to legalize its use in the us alone, where 2a states allow its recreational use, that market is huge, nearly $40 billion. so i'm going to be discussing all of that with these two. there they are, the big boss of the body that monitors drugs and drug addiction across europe, who tells me

there's been a huge rise in cannabis based drugs in recent decades. and a top exec at one of america's biggest cannabis retailers, which sells everything from recreational weed to medical marijuana and rakes in half a billion dollars a year. also on the show, i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. it has to be one of the coolest jobs on the planet. the head of haagen—dazs ice cream joins me to talk through the indulgence of her frozen flavours. wherever you joining me from around the world. once again, a big hello and a warm welcome to the show. you know, the cannabis industry, it's a market on a high as more and more countries look to legalize the possession and use of the drug for recreational use or to regulate how it's used as a medicinal product. just last month, germany became

the latest european country to legislate for personal use or indeed to grow marijuana plants at home. so on that note, let's hear from europe in a moment from the netherlands, where cannabis has been decriminalised for many years. but first, let's jump over to germany. here in berlin, it's pretty common to see people smoking cannabis, particularly in the city's parks, on a sunny day like this. now, in theory, it's illegal to possess the drug or carry it. in reality, police tend to turn a blind eye in many parts of germany, particularly here in berlin, and they go after the dealers instead. so to a certain extent, the law is simply catching up with reality. so that means that people will be allowed to possess and carry and consume for personal use a certain amount of the drug, a limited amount, but it would be very difficult to actually buy the drug. now, the government says this will eliminate the risk of people consuming contaminated products and that it will mean that people will be able to be educated about the risks of smoking. critics say it will simply exacerbate the black market and that in other countries with more liberal

drug policies, that simply hasn't worked. for more over to my colleague anna in the netherlands. well, some countries are relaxing their rules around cannabis. here in the netherlands, they're refining theirs. i'm going to take you inside this coffee shop here. cannabis cafes or coffee shops are popular tourist attractions, but they also play a key role in the pragmatic dutch approach to drug use. bartenders can sell small amounts to customers over the age of 18, balancing the need for social order and public health with fundamental values like tolerance and freedom. there is a legal paradox, though at the heart of this system, it's illegal to grow and supply large amounts of cannabis. the coffee shops have to get it from somewhere, and so police are obliged to simply look the other way. however, the government has started an experiment in which they grant cultivation

licences to a small group of growers. here's one i visited earlier, and the idea is that if this is successful, it will be rolled out across the country. and these initiatives reflect the netherlands ongoing effort to refine and evolve its cannabis policy, drawing on decades worth of experience. so there you go. it's a complex situation and of course, it's a balancing act for governments all around the world. if you go back to 2012, nowhere in the world had legalised and regulated cannabis for adult recreational use. and today you can see countries and jurisdictions on every continent have made that move. so we're seeing multiple jurisdictions in north america, in europe, in asia, australia, africa and and latin america are moving towards these reforms. and nothing was happening ten years ago. 0k. in a moment, we'll take a look at that huge us cannabis market. but first, here's

the european numbers. to date, five eu states have introduced or are planning to bring in new laws to regulate the supply of cannabis for recreational use. here they are czechia, germany, luxembourg, malta and the netherlands and the european cannabis market. it's estimated to be worth almost one and a half billion euros every year. but that said, the environmental impact of growing cannabis, it's considerable. for example, growing 250 marijuana plants in a greenhouse could consume up to one million litres of water a year. and while governments are striving to regulate the end use of cannabis, there are still big problems with the supply chain, which often relies heavily on criminal networks. now much of that information has come from the european monitoring centre for drugs and drug addiction. so i decided to catch up with its big boss, alexi goodale. a real pleasure having you on the show. and alexi, let me start with this.

what are the current trends of cannabis usage across europe? let's first talk about illicit cannabis use and then we will come to to the medical use of cannabinoids. so among the general population, we consider that we have 22 million of adults who made use of cannabis last year. and if we look among the young adults between the age range, 15, 30 and 3a years old, we have more or less 15 point. a million of people who have been using. so that group is representing 15 between 50 and 60% of the population that declared having made use of cannabis last year. so we, we have a huge evolution also in the availability on the market. in 2022, the seizures of resin cannabis reached the incredible amount of 816 tonnes, while the herbal cannabis

seizures, mostly produced on the territory of the eu, reached more or less 260 tons. well, alexi, let me ask you this. what are the biggest pressures facing national governments who are trying to chart a path between consumer demand, but also the risk to public health? there is a pressure. there is a movement in all the eu member states, more or less with initiatives, proposals to regulate the cannabis consumption and to allow for recreational use. but we need to put this in balance with the huge increase in drug related violence in europe. today we speak a lot about cocaine, but the drug related violence that we observe in the last 15, 20 years was driven first by the cannabis market in europe. so so any decision that is to be taken needs to consider those different elements and certainly the strong

component in the eu policy for public health. and aleksey, looking at the recreational side, looking at all those jurisdictions where it's just becoming much more widespread and open, why is that happening around the world? because i'm just wondering, is it to, well, control the drug dealers, the drug trafficking, or is it all about money? partly it's driven about money. when you have investors in colorado state that have put on the table more than $10 billion, you don't imagine they are making this investment to lose money. so there is a financial driver. and as you know, alexi, some will say one of the problems with the eu is that we're talking about a really diverse mix of countries with big policy differences. so how do differing cannabis laws affect cross—border trade and, of course, enforcement? well, again, that's a very interesting question. for many, many years, there was a total exclusion of any possibility

of discussion about the potential medical use for some of those illicit substances. there is an evolution. there is a very interesting change. the recent, i would say, five to ten years, including in the european union. you can see it when we talk about cannabis use for medical purposes. we need robust research, not on not only prohibition. so so here the point is giving the support to more research to understand better what are the medical the possible medical use. when we speak about drugs, we need to keep in mind that it's not brussels deciding on everything. one illustration is the recent decision of germany to regulate or to start regulating the cannabis market. and i think if we manage to help dissociate the what

is the potential medical use from the recreational use, i think my guess as a scientist or a specialist is that maybe it would facilitate the debate. because the confusion that is maintained between medical use or legalisation or regulation means that for those who are more afraid, for instance, they would not even consider the medical use of cannabinoids when we know that there is some evidence. now, it's not the magic substance that solves everything. so here we talk about facts, we talk about science, we talk about evaluation. but there is a room for that also in europe. what about the criminal sector? how big of an industry? alexy is that? and of course, how do european governments deal with that threat? well, the criminal sector is it's it is estimated that between 35 and 50% of the income of criminal

organisation is provided by drug production and drug trafficking. and when i say that, of course, i don't talk only about cannabis, but also cocaine, heroin in the recent ten to 15 years because of 911, because of the situation with daesh in syria and so on, the fight against the criminal organisation has not received the same priority also because the resources are limited. and aleksey, let me end on this today. you are the european monitoring centre for drugs and drug addiction. but comejuly, you're going to be rebranded to the european union drugs agency, and that's going to bring additional power. so i have to ask you, will they be the powers that that you need to tackle all of these challenges? the power will allow us to to support for all the main edges, both in the terms of anticipation, the emergence

of new problems in the future, building stronger alert systems, namely establishing a european drug alert system for all drugs. harm reduction, as we talked about this ten or 15 or 20 years ago is not the same today or tomorrow. so our capacity as the new agency is to help to push, to support the member states, to make a new analysis of the risks and of the harm and to build the new responses. well, on that point, alexi goodale, a real pleasure having you on the show. thanks for your time and we'll talk to you again soon. thank you, aaron. ok, so that's the view from europe. but the situation is much more advanced in north america. it's a huge and lucrative market in canada, the first leading economy to legalise or regulate the entire industry. however, it is a mixed picture in the united states. it's still illegal for recreational use in most states, but despite that, legal cannabis is estimated

to rake in this year alone, over $38 billion of sales. that's three times the entire european market. so i caught up with a top exec at one of america's biggest players. it's the cannabis company which grows manufacturers —— manufactures and retails cannabis products in 16 states. it claims the biggest us footprint outside of florida. jesse shannon, really great to have you with us. and jesse, let me start with this. how has the cannabis landscape in the united states change in the recent years? because i'm kind of wondering how that's affected your marketplace. it's a great question. so it's been an incredibly dynamic last four or five years in the us, we've seen a number of states not only emerge and join the medical programme but ultimately convert to adult use and recreational sales. that means an incredible change in the accessibility to the marketplace for consumers across the country. it also means a tonne of innovation with regards to products, forms, formulations, a continued focus obviously on outcome based

products for our medical patients, but also a lot of great high quality products to continue to convert legacy consumers into safe and tested product across the country. and jesse, i have to ask you, how do you reassure your customers and the wider public that that you can be trusted on on the safety of your products? we abide by, obviously, a pretty stringent regulatory environment that all of the operating organizations in the us do. we also have implemented a number of technology solutions and frameworks that track seed to sale, provide an enormous amount of transparency and compliance. candidly, as an industry, i think we're still developing we're still investing into more ways not only to ensure the safety of those products, but to provide transparency and education to consumers and patients that show that supply chain. but how do you convince and assure your customers that you won't prioritize profits over public health? we work in an incredibly monitored, incredibly stringent

regulatory framework. so i think consumers can take a lot of confidence in the systems that are in place to protect them. but for ourselves, it's it's part of our mission, vision and values this. and wejoke around all the time. people ask us, you know, is cannabis going to be $100 billion plus industry? and the truth is, it already is. it's only only 30 some odd billion if it's being sold legally. the rest of the data is ultimately making its way through these grey market, black market, or sort of illicit infrastructures until we can see continued expansion, which we are seeing across the country, and access to more canopy and to more manufacturing throughput, that's when you ultimately will see the cost for the safe and tested products come down to, if not below, where the illicit market is. and then i think you're looking at something very similar to what we saw with the end of prohibition of alcohol in this country, where at some point people aren't buying bathtub gin any more. it'sjust easier to go to a liquor store and get

a bottle of gin or buy a bottle of whiskey or wine or whatever it may be. jesse, is it difficult to navigate the company through the regulatory challenges and the changes in the cannabis industry? because i'm wondering, again, how do you do that? it's very difficult. we have a team of incredibly bright people that work on that across the country. i always joke around that being a multistate operator in the us is really almost like operating a multinational organisation inside of the country because every state has nuance and some differences to the frameworks of their regulatory and compliance, the systems that they may leverage all the way through, even the infrastructure that we have to use when it comes to either retail or cultivation or manufacturing. and jesse separating out medicinal cannabis with recreational cannabis, i mean, you serve both markets. so which market makes you the most money? which is which is the most profitable? we don't release any state by state numbers or individual profitability at this time. i think it's no secret when you look at those markets, that early medical markets where you have a limited number of compliant partners in that

regulatory framework. so limited number of operators are usually highly profitable. there's a large demand immediately and a small number of people to serve that demand. so for us, if you look at the us right now, a market like virginia probably jumps to the top of the list. that's a very sort of buzzy market that everyone�*s talking about right now. we're obviously the largest participant in that market, so that's a great market for us. we also operate in one of the most mature states in the country in colorado, totally different market dynamics, very large market, over a billion and a half to approaching two billion in sales in any given year, but a much more mature framework, which means lower prices for products, more total transactions and consumers. well, jesse, you're now a public company, so who are your top investors? that's a great question.

so we're probably, as an industry, disproportionately high in what we would refer to as retail, but really individual investors that are just incredibly excited about the industry placing bets. they know that a rising tide, all boats, there are better days ahead. i think institutional investors, the things that would look more akin to what a company of our size would look like if listed on nasdaq or the new york stock exchange, those days are coming. so we, of course, have investors that look and feel like that today. i think the complexion of that change is significantly when you see up listing into the domestic markets. i want to talk to you about big tobacco, even big alcohol conglomerates, because some campaigners have noted that they're now investing into the cannabis industry. and look, let's be frank, because we are talking about huge influential corporates with huge lobbying expertise, big networks and long established political influences. so, jesse, what do you make of this? i'm wondering if this is a help or a hindrance to a company like yours.

i think that if you're an investor in the space and operator in this space or someone who isjust cheering from the sidelines for additional and continued expansion of a legal cannabis framework. that's a very healthy sign. those are very large, very sophisticated organizations that are looking at our... ..industries that exist today and are seeing the same thing that i am, which is undeniable and inevitable growth and normalization across the country. so i think from that side, that's very healthy. it's a very good sign. i think when you start getting into trouble, though, is when you start having these other organizations, these other industries trying to shape our industry in a way that is either similar to theirs or in a way that they potentially see an opportunity for strategic control or even a way that they see for trying to stifle our growth. and jesse, just a few minutes ago on the show, i was talking to the director of the european union body

that looks into drugs and drug addiction. and we are now seeing a possible more open and regulated cannabis market in the eu. so, let me end on this. could we see the cannabis company making a move into the european market? well, that's a good question. so we were actually there very early. so we rebranded this last year. prior, we were columbia care. columbia care had a presence in both the uk as well as germany. we were primarily focused on the cbd side of the business. obviously in the uk we were doing very early work in germany with that. with that market, could you see a cannabis company participation in the eu in the future? absolutely. there's no reason to say that you wouldn't. but right now and for the foreseeable future, we need to be laser focused on doing the best that we can to put good plants in the ground and get them into the people who are in the hands of people who need them in the communities

that we serve today and those communities are here in the us. well, on that point, jesse shannon, the president of the cannabis company, great to have you on the show. thanks for your time and we'll check in with you soon. thanks so much, aaron. we'll talk soon. 0k. up next, she runs one of the world's top ice cream brands with dozens of flavors in 90 countries around the world. but it's not cheap. but my producer says he's going to buy me some if we get enough of you to watch this show. she is the big boss of haagen—dazs ice cream. orelie laurie, a real pleasure having you on the show. and let me start with this and it may be a bit of a curveball, but on this week's show, we've been looking at the fast growing global regulated market for cannabis. so i've got, well, i've got you i've got to ask you, would haagen—dazs ever consider making a cannabis ice cream product? ok, it's a curveball, i think. you know, we we consider everything at haagen—dazs because we are led by innovation and that's very much the way we work, we listen to consumers. so i'm not saying, you know,

it hasn't touched our our mind. we have a pastry chef, actually. i think he explored it once in a very, very small series saying that it would have the global, you know, potential and lens to really make it like a big globalflavour. maybe trite today, but we never say no. right. the spirit of being a pioneer and really test things. why not? right. so i'm not i'm not shutting the door entirely, but my r&d team may think differently. what's your biggest market on the planet? so today our biggest market is in china. we have over 400 shops in in that country, a very premium positioning and yes, a strong presence. so china would be first. and then if i'm closer to home in europe, typically i would say that france and uk

are our biggest markets. france is more nutty profile with a flavour ranked with macadamia nut. brazil and uk is tim salted caramel. you're not exactly the cheapest ice cream out there, so how do you justify your price point? we were founded by a couple rose and ribbon mattus and it's a great story. and what happened is that we were created in 1960 in brooklyn, us and the couple, they really had very, very high standard. their mission was simply, let's do the best ice cream in the world. so we still live by their ethos. you've tasted haagen—dazs, you know, that's the overrun. it's a dense ice cream. and so it gives that really creamy texture, which explains why you need to wait a little bit to to eat haagen—dazs. look, i'm no expert. i've done a little research but can you explain to certainly to the uninitiated, just what is overrun and how important is the amount of fat in ice cream.

over end, it is the amount of air that you would put in an ice cream. right. which is why as a consumer, when you can buy one brand or the other, you may find that you have the same litre, but not the same grams. right. so that's simply put, that's that's it. if the ice cream weights more, it means the overrun is lower. it means you have more product. you can do a simple test. you just put your spoon in the ice cream and you see how fast the spoon enters the ice cream. that's as easy as it gets. it simply puts i do that with my kids all the time. do you produce your ice cream in every one of those global markets? no, we are made in france. i'm actually sitting today and i'm talking to you out of our plants. so we are made in arras in the north of france. and the location has

been selected because it's very close. we work with a50 farmers and we know that the milk, the quality of the milk and the cream that you get in that part of the world first is very qualitative, but also it's constant across the year. so that's the primary decision to to base haagen—dazs core factory out there in the north of france. and let me end on this international women's day, eighth of march, haagen—dazs, you've set up this rose project to celebrate unsung, inspirational women all around the world. so i want to ask you, was rose one of the founders, was she unsung? we like to say that ruben made the ice cream and rose made haagen dazs. and although, of course, in her time she was the marketing wizard and really built the brand the way we know it today, we realize that her story was untold, and that's why we started the rose project, which is a platform global with over 2500 nominations. so her story resonates with women today, and it's a tribute to her legacy.

and we're disclosing the five winners just this year and opening nominations for 202a. wow. on that point aurelie lory, the global managing director at haagen—dazs, fabulous to have you on the show. good luck with everything. we'll talk to you soon. thank you. well, that's it for this week's show. i hope you enjoyed it. don't forget, you can keep up with the latest on our global economy on the bbc website or the smartphone app. of course, you can also follow me on. x me, i'll x you back. i'll see you soon.

good morning. welcome to breakfast with ben boulos and nina warhurst. no headlines at six o'clock— setting sail for gaza: no headlines at six o'clock— setting sailfor gaza: the us military ship sets off with equipment to help aid into the territory. 55—year wait for answers — manjailed for killing muriel mackay says he is willing to show the body — sure her family with the body is buried. in sport, england's day at twickenham as marcus smith's late dropped goal denies ireland a shot of a second consecutive six nations grand slam. and hollywood rolls up the red carpet as it gets ready to host the oscars tonight. good morning. on this mother's day it is not looking

especially springlike with lots of