After three years of discussion and overcoming the differences between Congress and the Executive, Costa Rica signed the law that supports the use of medicinal and therapeutic cannabis, an announcement welcomed this Thursday by families of patients.
Source: AFP
The project, which had been approved by Congress on January 14, received a partial veto from President Carlos Alvarado, due to aspects related to self-cultivation and self-consumption, which, for the Executive, can open the doors to illegal trafficking.
On Tuesday, the legislature withdrew both aspects of the rule and this Wednesday the president promulgated it. “With this we alleviate the pain and facilitate the treatment of many people who need it, and that alone is a great goal,” said the ruler, after signing the law.
The rule allows the authorities to grant licenses for the production and industrialization of cannabis for medical or therapeutic purposes.
It also declares free the cultivation, production, industrialization, commercialization of non-psychoactive hemp or cannabis and its products or by-products, for food and industrial purposes.
“It generates peace of mind, because we can now obtain CBD (cannabidiol) and oils in a regulated manner, without exposing ourselves to a legal situation,” said Andrés Fonseca, who gives these products to his brother Francisco, 30, with a neurological disability and epilepsy.
“It is a relief that we can buy it normally. Before we had to look for it outside. This medicine helps our daughter’s quality of life too much,” said Rachel Moore, mother of Malia, 13 years old and with a similar diagnosis to Francisco.
These two families are part of the 4,000 that, according to medical cannabis activists such as Isaac Amador (father of a child with cerebral palsy and epilepsy), benefit from this legislation.
With this rule, Costa Rica joined more than 20 countries that allow this activity, several in Latin America, such as Argentina, Chile, Panama, Mexico, Colombia.
The country also hopes to promote economic reactivation with the guarantee.
A study by the Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer) estimated that by 2025 the hemp and medicinal cannabis market will move 35,000 million dollars a year.
