The new year has been a very positive for cannabis for multiple reasons. Australia just became the fourth country to allow the export of medical cannabis.

The Australian federal government wants to join the extremely-lucrative medical cannabis industry and hopes to lead all the other nations as a global leaders of medical cannabis. Grand View Research, based in the United States, claims the global market for medicinal cannabis will surpass $55 billion by 2025.

The government is well aware of the claims cannabis advocates make of the plant’s healing abilities especially for patients of cancer, AIDS, HIV, multiple sclerosis among various other medical conditions. Though illegal for social use, cannabis use for medicinal purposes is legal in Australia.

Australian federal health minister Greg Hunt claims Australian medical cannabis is one of the highest grades of cannabis, which definitely makes is eligible for being a world leader and producer of medical cannabis.

“We have a world class reputation for our clean and green farm products,” Hunt said to VOA News. “Put them all together and we are brilliantly placed to be a world leader in medical development and medical cannabis.”

The medical cannabis industry in Australia is fairly new and fairly small. With the new laws set into place, Australia hopes to expand the cannabis agriculture industry as well, since there’s both improvement and profit to be made there. With the medical cannabis industry growing both agriculturally and globally, Australia is rapidly climbing its way to the top.

Other countries that have legalized the global export of medical cannabis are Canada, the Netherlands and Uruguay.

While the Australian federal government hopes to become medical cannabis global leaders, some states in Australia have still banned cannabis. Ironically, it is illegal for social use also.