The Colombian cannabis producers They asked the National Government for “urgent regulation” of consumption in adults, which, according to them, will result in in favor of public health and the reduction of violence caused by the illicit market.
(World leaders support Petro’s proposed drug legalization.)
This was expressed by the Colombian Cannabis Industry Association (Asocolcanna), which represents them before the Colombian Government, in a document signed today in Bogotá jointly by sectors linked to this product.
“The market for adult use of cannabis already exists and the time has come to regulate it to safeguard the public health of Colombians, avoid and prevent consumption by minors and reduce violence associated with the illicit market,” said Luis Alfredo. Muelas as a signatory of the document, during the Congress “The role of cannabis in changing Colombian drug policy“.
Among the petitions addressed to the Executive of the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, the need to democratize access to the industry for the popular actors and producers who have been affected by the war against drugs, and to promote the indigenous and peasant economies of the sector.
(The project that regulates cannabis was approved in the first debate).
The need for “differential” treatment
The president of the Walacannabis Federation, Oswaldo Guetio, requested the creation of a “indigenous special free zone” in order to guarantee the quality, movement and trade with other indigenous peoples of their products, as well as the relaxation or elimination of the allocation of quotas for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active principle of the plant, which prevents them from advancing internationally.
“As a Federation we have 150 licensed hectares and we have only made progress in research,” Guetio said. Walacannabis brings together various cooperatives, associations, foundations, councils and indigenous and peasant organizations of small growers of medicinal plants, and medicinal cannabis-hemp and its derivatives from Colombia In this regard, the Minister of Justice and Law, Néstor Osuna, who also chaired the act, insisted that, in order to build equality, the new drug policy should have a “differential approach.”
“The problem of coca in Catatumbo (a subregion of the Norte de Santander department) or cannabis in more urban areas is not the same. Nor is it the same if those involved in cultivation are indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, peasants. ..”, Minister Osuna said.
(Biden pardons thousands of those convicted of marijuana possession.)
“Play the World Cup without having a League”
Of the Eight debates that the project must go through of modification of article 49 of the Colombian Constitution to regularize cannabis for adult use, before the end of the year, the fourth of them will be held, foreseeably this Wednesday.
“We are about halfway there. The other half will be next year, but we are confident that the Congress of the Republic will approve this modification and we will have an intelligent regulation of the adult use of cannabis,” Minister Osuna explained to EFE.
In this sense, the president of Asocolcanna, Miguel Samper, regretted that, despite the fact that the legalization of the use of medicinal cannabis in the country was made six years ago, the bureaucratic obstacles condemned the sector to be in “intensive care” to the extent that, in 2021, of the 1,300 licensed companies, only 900 reported activity.
He recalled that, currently, of the two brands in charge of marketing cannabis-based medicines, one is from the United Kingdom and the other, despite the fact that it produces 100% of the raw material it uses in Barranquilla (north). she is not colombian “We are mainly exporting to Canada, Germany, Israel and Australia.
EFE
