Bloomberg Línea – The legal cannabis market is starting to change in Central America©. Last year± Panama and Costa Rica approved the medical use of marijuana; It remains banned in the rest of the isthmus, but there are signs that other nations may join. Meanwhile, 15 U.S. states and the District of Columbia allow recreational use of marijuana. In the November 2020 election, Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota allowed cannabis use for adults. Consumers purchase marijuana from provincially or territorially regulated retailers or, if none of these options are available, state-licensed producers. Marijuana is also not sold in the same place as alcohol or tobacco. In Colombia, medical marijuana was legalized in 2016, but after a debate in the House of Representatives on November 3, 2020, the bill to legalize recreational use was suspended. “Inclusion does not change the rules for importing cannabidiol or other marijuana extracts. The measure is also not an endorsement or recognition of cannabis as a medicinal plant,” explains ANVISA. That is, the substances of the plant are allowed, but not the plant itself.
In Latin America, at least eight countries have approved medical marijuana, and only two, Uruguay and Mexico, have legalized its recreational use. Two deputies have proposed a bill to Congress to support the use of marijuana for medical and therapeutic purposes in Guatemala. On September 17, 2019, Ecuador joined the list of countries that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes. The proposal aims to legalize the use of cannabidiol CBD, one of the two main components of cannabis or marijuana. In the meantime, for technical reasons, the Commission assures that there is no accumulated evidence to determine the beneficial or negative effects of marijuana consumption policies. Countries such as Chile, Peru and Paraguay have also approved medical cannabis. Puerto Rico also allows marijuana for medical purposes. After Uruguay, Canada became the second country in the world and the first G7 country to legalize recreational marijuana. Of those trying to overcome their drug addiction, 78.37 per cent are in Honduras and 71.76 per cent in Guatemala for marijuana; The country with the lowest incidence is Panama with 28.1% according to UNODC. Uruguay legalized marijuana use nationwide in 2013.
There, pharmacies across the country act as outlets for the product, which has been grown by just two state-licensed companies, Symbiosis and Iccorp. Buyers can buy up to 40 grams per month. Residents can register as “original growers” or set up “grow clubs” to grow up to 480 grams per person per year. But these local producers cannot sell to pharmacies. The war declared by former Mexican© President Felipe Calderón against the drug mafia prompted its leaders to move south and find a center of operations for their activities in that country`s extreme fragility. This reality and the state`s inability to fight economically superior and better armed groups led Pã©Rez to conclude that this was a lost war. He called on the international community to take a different approach which, in the case of Guatemala, would lead to the legalization of the production of marijuana and poppy seeds, the latter being the raw material for the production of heroin and morphine. Initiative 5224, which provides for the adoption of the law regulating the production, marketing and consumption of cannabis (marijuana) for medical, therapeutic and scientific purposes, whose rapporteur was the late deputy Álvaro Velásquez, suffered a setback.
