Medical Use Only, Colombia Legalized Marijuana
Medical Use Only, Colombia Legalized Marijuana
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Today, Colombia’s President, Juan Manuel Santos legalizes and regulates medical marijuana, representing the latest and most significant loosening of the country’s hardline and divisive tactics in the war on drugs.
In a nationally televised, Santos announced it would be completely legal to grow, process, import and export cannabis and its derivatives for medical and scientific use.
“This decree allows licenses to be granted for the possession of seeds, cannabis plants and marijuana,” he said from the presidential palace.
“It places Colombia in the group of countries that are at the forefront… in the use of natural resources to fight disease.”
Yahoo! news reports that Colombia’s government has long been a close ally of the United States in fighting international drug trafficking.
Over the past few decades, Colombia’s government has utilized its military and billions of dollars in US funding and support to try to break out of its reputation as as the world’s largest cocaine producer.
Colombia's opening up to the idea of legal marijuana joins several other decriminalization efforts elsewhere in Latin America. Uruguay fully legalized the drug in 2013, with not other country getting close to such an ambitious move. But last month Mexico's supreme court ruled in favor of the right of four individuals to cultivate and use marijuana for recreational purposes. A bill paving the way for legal recreational use was approved by Chile's lower house of Congress and is currently in the Senate.
Some pro legalizers, however, expressed concern that the new medical marijuana market in Colombia will benefit big pharmaceutical companies more than it does the legalization movement.
"We do not want pharmaceutical companies displacing or exploiting those doing good work because they have no muscle," Marcela Tovar Thomas, a drug policy reform advocate with the local Center of Thought and Action for Transition (CPAT) told VICE News. "I hope there will be measures to guarantee equal access to permits [to grow], which is not the same as monopolised control from the big pharma companies."
"When reforming drug policy we mustn't forget that the majority of victims of prohibition are the weakest," Tovar said. "We cannot make them yet more weak."
In a nationally televised, Santos announced it would be completely legal to grow, process, import and export cannabis and its derivatives for medical and scientific use.
“This decree allows licenses to be granted for the possession of seeds, cannabis plants and marijuana,” he said from the presidential palace.
“It places Colombia in the group of countries that are at the forefront… in the use of natural resources to fight disease.”
Yahoo! news reports that Colombia’s government has long been a close ally of the United States in fighting international drug trafficking.
Over the past few decades, Colombia’s government has utilized its military and billions of dollars in US funding and support to try to break out of its reputation as as the world’s largest cocaine producer.
Colombia's opening up to the idea of legal marijuana joins several other decriminalization efforts elsewhere in Latin America. Uruguay fully legalized the drug in 2013, with not other country getting close to such an ambitious move. But last month Mexico's supreme court ruled in favor of the right of four individuals to cultivate and use marijuana for recreational purposes. A bill paving the way for legal recreational use was approved by Chile's lower house of Congress and is currently in the Senate.
Some pro legalizers, however, expressed concern that the new medical marijuana market in Colombia will benefit big pharmaceutical companies more than it does the legalization movement.
"We do not want pharmaceutical companies displacing or exploiting those doing good work because they have no muscle," Marcela Tovar Thomas, a drug policy reform advocate with the local Center of Thought and Action for Transition (CPAT) told VICE News. "I hope there will be measures to guarantee equal access to permits [to grow], which is not the same as monopolised control from the big pharma companies."
"When reforming drug policy we mustn't forget that the majority of victims of prohibition are the weakest," Tovar said. "We cannot make them yet more weak."
(rnz)
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