Brazil Looks To Home Grows To Expand Medical Marijuana Access, But Is It Enough?

Brazil’s Committee of Social Affairs (Comissao de Assuntos Sociais) of the Senate approved a bill this week that would legalize home growing of medical marijuana – a move that highlights the need for better and more affordable access to MMJ products in the South American country.

Only patients, patients associations or relatives would be authorized to grow and produce medical marijuana if the measure becomes law.

Currently, the only legal way of accessing medical marijuana in Brazil is to import product individually, with approval on a case-by-case basis .

Because importing products is so expensive, home growing would increase access to a large number of patients that “today can’t even dream of having access to legal imported cannabis,” Margarete Brito, general coordinator of APEPI, an association of medical cannabis patients, told Marijuana Business Daily.

“This means that businesses looking for commercial opportunities trying to export to the Brazilian market should keep in mind that price is a critical issue and the vast majority of patients can’t afford imported products with today’s prices,” Brito said.

But not everyone is convinced that allowing home growing will solve the problem of access.

Marcelo De Vita Grecco, CEO and co-founder of Centro de Excelencia Canabinoide, a platform that provides medical cannabis education in Brazil, told MJBizDaily that he appreciated the government trying to find a solution, but “patients should have access to standardized and safe products, and cultivating at home is too risky.

“(It’s) also highly inconvenient, like wanting to make your own olive oil. Imagine having to squeeze your own olives every time you want fresh oil,” he said.

Though this a significant legislative step, the bill now heads to the Committee of Constitution, Justice and Citizenship of the Senate (Comissao de Constituicao, Justica e Cidadania).

After that, it will be discussed in the Senate plenary and the Chamber of Deputies.

The commission noted that roughly 2 million Brazilians suffer from epilepsy. About 600,000 of the cases are refractory epilepsy, and medical marijuana is their only solution.

The bill would modify Law 11,343 of 2006 to allow home growing of MMJ in quantities justified by medical prescription, as well as the importation of seeds and plants.

Alfredo Pascual can be reached at [email protected]

Original Article Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/brazil-looks-to-home-grows-to-expand-medical-marijuana-access-but-is-it-enough/

Comments

Feds Hire Hazmat Firm For Marijuana Eradication Training

An ambitious campaign to decriminalize psychedelics in Washington, D.C., is one step closer to placing their measure on the November ballot with the formal submission of tens of thousands of voter signatures. Organizers have been scrambling for weeks to collect enough signatures from D.C. voters by Monday’s deadline amid historically difficult circumstances: a global pandemic, months of stay-at-home orders and protests over racism and police violence that filled the streets of the nation’s capital. But with the help of innovative signature-gathering techniques and allies flown in from across the country, advocates said they had successfully submitted upwards of 35,000 signatures—more than enough to qualify the initiative. If approved by voters, Initiative 81 would make enforcement of laws against plant- and fungus-based psychedelics among the “lowest law enforcement priorities” for the Metropolitan Police Department. It would not, however, legalize or reduce penalties for the substa...

Mississippi Medical Marijuana Activists Relieved After Controversial Legalization Resolution Stalls Out

Only a day after a new marijuana decriminalization law took effect in Virginia, top state lawmakers are announcing that they’re already looking ahead to full legalization. A group of Democratic legislators on Thursday announced plans to introduce a bill to legalize and regulate a commercial cannabis market in the state. While the measure isn’t set to be filed until next year, lawmakers framed legalization as necessary in the fight for social and racial justice. “Decriminalizing marijuana is an important step in mitigating racial disparities in the criminal justice system, but there is still much work to do,” House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D) said in a press release. “While marijuana arrests across the nation have decreased, arrests in Virginia have increased.” Other lawmakers backing the broader legalization push include Sens. Adam Ebbin (D) and Jennifer McClellan (D), as well as Del. Steve Heretick (D). On Wednesday, the state’s new marijuana decriminalization policy too...

Marijuana Ballot Initiative Campaigns Raised $12.9 Million, Final Pre-Election Numbers Show

2018 has been a banner year for marijuana ballot initiatives. Voters in two states are considering legalizing recreational use, while those in another two states will decide whether to allow medical cannabis. In the lead-up to the election, committees supporting or opposing these initiatives have raised a total of $12.9 million in cash and in-kind services over the past two years to convince those voters, Marijuana Moment’s analysis of the latest campaign finance records filed the day before Election Day shows. On the day final ballots are cast and tallied, here’s where funding totals now stand for the various cannabis committees, both pro and con, in the four states considering major modifications to marijuana laws. (Notes: For Missouri, PACS supported one of three initiatives that would bring some form of medical marijuana to the state. Missouri Oppose ($6,000) data isn’t visible on chart due to scale.) Missouri Missouri has three different medical cannabis ballot initiatives ,...

Norma Pence

Search This Blog