The tortuous path to legal marijuana in the Americas

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The American continent has become the great pioneer in legalizing marijuana, with successful examples such as Uruguay or some U.S. states, although there is still a long and tortuous path ahead toward recreational cannabis.

Evidence of this is Mexico, where Congress has been deferring the regulation for months with an avalanche of pro and contra voices, or Brazil and Guatemala, countries where recreational consumption is not yet envisioned in the near future.

MEXICO, TOWARD THE LARGEST GLOBAL MARKET

After over a century of prohibition, Mexico is about to become the third country to regulate the legal consumption of marijuana at the national level, after Uruguay and Canada.

“Mexico has 130 million inhabitants and it would be the largest legal industry in the world,” said Zara Snapp, co-founder of the RIA Institute, which researches drug policy.

In a country with record homicide rates due to violence, there is hope that regulation will reduce cartel power, although Snapp doubts that it will alter “the drug trafficking structures,” as they are very diversified.

Be that as it may, the legal initiative does not stem from political will, but rather from a Supreme Court ruling that, after several appeals, declared the ban unconstitutional in 2019 and forced Congress into regulating the issue.

With mid-term elections approaching, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies are unable to agree on the final text, so it is virtually guaranteed that they will ask the Supreme Court for a fourth deferral, since the current one expires on April 30th.

The bill permits carrying up to a maximum of 28 grams of cannabis and provides for a licensing system for growing up to 8 plants at home, founding smokers’ associations, as well as producing and selling marijuana and industrial hemp.

“They are not complying with what the Supreme Court is demanding because neither cultivation nor possession is free,” complains Pepe Rivera, of the Mexican Cannabis Movement, who set up a protest camp outside the Senate where hundreds of people gather daily to smoke.

Cannabis activists consider that the future law criminalizes consumers, as it provides for fines and prison sentences for possessing over 28 grams, and threaten to appeal the bill before the Supreme Court. “It is an unnecessary and irrational law,” says Rivera.

URUGUAY, THE PIONEER IN THE AMERICAS AND THE WORLD

It has been almost 10 years since Uruguay overcame all these hurdles and became the first in the world to legalize marijuana. In June 2012, the government then presided by José Mujica (2010-2015) announced its plan for the “regulated and controlled legalization” of marijuana to fight crime in the South American country.

Despite a UN warning for what it considered could be a “serious violation” of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the country went ahead and in 2013 it was passed in the Senate and celebrated in the streets by activists.

Milton Romani, who at the time was secretary general of the National Drug Board, says that the Uruguayan law “has several virtues,” as it does not only deal with cannabis for adult use, but also includes the production of cannabis for medicinal use and the industrial exploitation of hemp. In addition, the country’s drug policy is focused on “human rights and public health.”

In July 2017, 3 years, 7 months and 9 days after Parliament passed the law, the substance began to be sold for recreational use in the country’s pharmacies, although, in addition to requiring permits from the regulatory agency, owners must also be willing to market it.

To date, only 15 pharmacies do so, and the sale price is 350 Uruguayan pesos (about US$7.70) for a 5-gram packet. This completes the three routes provided for in the law for recreational access to marijuana, along with self-cultivation and cannabis clubs, which have been authorized since 2014.

In fact, María José Miles, president of the Federation of Cannabis Clubs, said that the experience for club members is “positive”, because they can safely access “good quality” cannabis.

THE PARADOX OF THE UNITED STATES

At the other end of the American continent, the case of the United States is most particular: marijuana consumption and possession is illegal at the federal level as a result of a 1970 law that is still in force, but its medicinal use is permitted in virtually all states, and even its recreational use is legal in 14 states and the District of Columbia – where the country’s capital, Washington, is located.

“In California, any adult over 21 years of age with an official document to prove it may visit one of the hundreds of dispensaries in the state and buy up to 28 grams of marijuana a day,” said Michael Telias, a researcher at the University of Berkeley and regular cannabis consumer.

Telias praises the system’s simplicity and ease, which even enables home delivery of marijuana and derived products, but laments the high taxes imposed by the Californian government, as it is one of the most expensive states for consuming the plant.

David Lonsdale, CEO of CanaFarma Corp, a company specializing in the manufacture of hemp-derived products, believes that marijuana is being increasingly considered similarly to liquor, and hopes that in the coming years it will be regulated at the federal level and legalization will be achieved, particularly since the election of Joe Biden to power and with both Houses of Congress controlled by the Democratic Party.

GUATEMALA AND ITS HARSH PROHIBITION

The long shadow of the United States has for decades pressured to prevent the legalization of drugs in narcotics producing and distributing countries.

In Guatemala, marijuana is prohibited and punished with imprisonment, but anti-drug policy in the Central American country is virtually “orphaned” with the United States as its “stepfather,” according to economist and political scientist Carlos Mendoza, government commissioner for the review of anti-drug policy in Guatemala between 2014 and 2015.

“Guatemala does in drug policy whatever the United States says, and it does it badly because we don’t have access for consumers to have alternatives,” explains the expert.

The ex-commissioner adds that the number of people detained, prosecuted and convicted for marijuana consumption in Guatemala is still high, which causes a “serious problem for the justice system” in a country with a 470% prison overcrowding rate.

Guatemalan law provides for prison sentences of up to 2 years for the consumption of narcotics and up to 20 years for production, transport, storage or promotion of drugs, including marijuana.

BRAZIL, MEDICAL MARIJUANA AS A FIRST STEP

In most countries, the approval of medical marijuana use has preceded recreational use. The medicinal use of cannabidiol (CBD), one of the main active ingredients extracted from marijuana, has been authorized in Brazil since 2015, but its cultivation for this purpose is only allowed following judicial authorization.

The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) in December 2019 approved the marketing of marijuana-based products in the country’s pharmacies, but cultivation in Brazil by companies interested in researching the medicinal use of the plant or in producing medicines is still expressly vetoed.

At least one pharmaceutical company has now been authorized to produce CBD in Brazil, but most treatments using marijuana’s active ingredients are still imported.

The easing in 2020 of import rules helped relieve the battle of Cristiane Palacios, who for years has been buying cannabidol oil to treat her daughter Valentina, a 7-year-old girl with Down syndrome and autism who has suffered epileptic seizures.

“The first change (after starting treatment) is that she stopped being aggressive. The autistic seizures decreased. She managed to see that there was a world outside her world and with that she began to interact” with children and adults, Palacios said.

An attorney, Palacios set her career aside after Valentina’s birth and in recent years has dedicated herself, with the help of doctors, to searching for the best CBD-based treatment.

Despite the greater acceptance of the plant’s medicinal use in Brazil, the law still penalizes cultivation, marketing, possession and consumption of marijuana with imprisonment.

Source: El Diario