Argentina Legalizes Medicinal Cannabis

After fighting for this right for a very, very long time, Argentina has finally legalized medicinal cannabis. The Mamá Cultiva and Cameda organizations have been proposing a Cannabis Healthcare system for years, and they eventually got permission to have a vote. On the 23^rd of November 2016, the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation of Argentina voted in favor of a law that would allow certain patients access to cannabis oil to calm their pains and illnesses. These organizations are formed by families with sick members that need to use this product daily to improve their quality of life.

Some of the most important politicians in Argentina are in favor of medicinal cannabis, like the deputies Leandro Busatto, Danilo Capitani or Paco Garibaldi. The ex-minister of health, Miguel Capiello considers cannabis as just another kind of medicine due to the fact that one of his sons suffers epilepsy and needs it for medicinal reasons.

In Argentina, cannabis oil has been used for quite a long time to treat various illnesses, but always behind closed doors with home-made extractions. Growing privately still hasn’t been depenalized; the government will provide a series of registered patients with cannabis oil for medicinal uses. The president of Mamá Cultiva, Valeria Salegh, ensures the government that she is a responsible user and she just wants her son to get the medication that he needs; her son needs to be on constant medication and its out of it quite a lot, but with just a drop of cannabis oil he can smile and look at his mother without being completely drugged.

This oil can be used to treat issues like glaucoma, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, pain relief, stress, depression, cancer, epilepsy… the list goes on.

The new law promotes developments and industrial production of cannabis in order to make extractions and make different types of medication based on cannabis oil extractions.

At the moment the government is going to import the oil until they are capable of producing it, a responsibility which has fallen into the hands of the National Institute of Farming Technology. The project, known as ANMAT, will also be in charge of handing out permission slips that allow patients to register into the program.

The organizations in charge of promoting this law are quite happy with the result; even though they won’t be able to grow themselves, they still managed to reach favorable conclusions and conditions. The law has a total of 10 articles, one of which expressly states that growing cannabis is illegal. Various international celebrities have thrown in with Mamá Cultivo, recording videos to show that they’re in favor of an initiative to allow people to grow marijuana in their own homes.

Other South American countries like Uruguay, Chile or Colombia already have a regulated medicinal cannabis system, and it seems like the number of countries that are in favor of legalizing the medicinal use of this amazing plant is growing bigger every day!

Translation: Ciara Murphy