Argentina launches national production of cannabis for medical use | The society

The Argentine Congress approved in March 2017 a law authorizing the medical use of marijuana. It limited the authorizations to the treatment of refractory epilepsy and, at the same time, maintained the prohibition of self-cultivation, allowed its importation until the state found the conditions to produce it. As the state did not seem very interested in advancing national oil production, patients still had to pay US $ 400 for a 100 milliliter bottle of oil, which would be enough, at better, to a treatment of a month. This figure surpbades by almost $ 90 the minimum salary of an Argentinean and forces patients to self-cultivate, at the risk of being imprisoned until age 15, or d? go to the black market. There, the price goes down to 40 dollars, but for a medicine without any control or risky efficiency.

The Jujuy government has promised that with Cannabis Avatatwill fill the chapter of the law that allowed the national production of cannabis oil. "The idea is that the state is a safe supplier," said Gastón Morales, president of the state-owned company and son of the provincial governor, Gerardo Morales. The forecast is to produce 300,000 liters of oil in five years, enough to supply the local market and export the surplus.

"All progress is good, because today all mothers go to the black market where we have to cultivate," says Maria Elena Vildoza, Cannabis Medicinal Jujuy. María Elena is the mother of Gael, a four-year-old boy with refractory epilepsy. "When we could not buy cannabis for its price, we stopped giving it for a while, Gael then went back into convulsions, started to isolate and stopped eating. he has come back to life, "he says.

The Jujuy project benefited from the full support of Mauricio Macri's government, the key to approval of health authorities and tax authorizations. This week, the Ministry of Security approved the use of up to 15 acres of publicly owned El Pongo property, where the first seeds will be planted before the large-scale experiment. "The first seeds will arrive in two or three weeks and in September, we will be able to move from the pilot stage to the industrial stage," explains Morales. Then the production of oil and procedures before the Anmat, the office that must approve its sale as a drug, will begin.

The mothers of Cannabis Medicinal Jujuy are aware of the project from the beginning. They promised that they would receive the oil for free. "For now, these are projects, we will have to see what happens in the facts," said Vildoza. "We know it's going to be grown, but we do not know what kind of seed they will bring, how much they have allowed." Mothers who grow up know what plants their children need, I want oil for my son, that's the only thing that interests me, "he says.

María Laura Alasi is the mother of Josefina, a six-year-old girl who, at the worst stage of the disease, had 600 spasms a day. "I was taking six anticonvulsants a day and now I only need one and the oil and his spasms have been reduced to 20 a week," he says. His case is known because Alasi was the first Argentine to have obtained permission to import oil. Today, he regrets that the national state did not take charge of the national production of drugs nor allowed self-cultivation. He lives in Buenos Aires, but he is aware of the project in Jujuy. "Being a project with private capital will be a business and will eventually work, but the risk is that oil will not reach people with low resources," he said. Morales ensures that the benefits will be enormous. "It's a public health issue," he adds, "because the therapeutic power of the cannabis plant has been demonstrated."