Colombia to allow export of dried cannabis leaves for medicinal purposes

After several obstacles and questions regarding the legal marketing and export of medicinal cannabis in Colombia, the President of the Republic, Iván Duque, this Friday would sign the decree that would allow such actions with the factory.

The procedures would be carried out once the first president sanctioned the modification of the article 613 of 2017, which regulates the medical cannabis trade in the country. In addition, he would have a meeting with businessmen from this union to launch the Decree of safe and informed access to the use of cannabis on national soil.

In this regard, the director of the administrative department of the presidency (Dapre), Víctor Muñoz, had a conversation with the radio station W, in which he provided details of this important step in national legislation, related to economic growth, job creation, value-added exports and government innovation related to cannabis.

Muñoz spoke of the millionaire earnings that the market for this medicinal plant could bring the Colombian treasure and highlighted the approval of the decree in which the Ministry of Justice participated to obtain its approval.

“It’s a market that by 2024 could approach $ 62 billion. This is very good news, it will allow us to increase the investments that have already arrived in the country and exceed US $ 250 million. This will also allow the development of added value around this industry, ”said the official of the national government.

It must be remembered that the export and marketing of the dried flower of cannabis has been one of the main criticisms with regard to the approval which, in the opinion of the entrepreneurs of this product, prevented domestic companies from distributing it abroad.

According to the edict, it would be given “I move on to a scientific debate which makes it possible to identify under what requirements and for what purposes this activity must be carried out, always aiming at medical and scientific purposes”.

BENEFITS

Some of the points to highlight about the amendment to the decree are that it would allow magistral preparations are marketed in drugstores and pharmacies in districts of the country and other medicinal products, based on cannabis, which, according to various studies, provide multiple curative benefits.

On the other hand, it would encourage marketing of plant derivatives and that would help cannabis to enter the free zone, in order to be processed and exported, legally, from Colombian territory to other countries.

Perhaps one of the things that stands out most in the change is that the manufacturing license of products not psychoactive. That is, it would only be used for develop medical and industrial products, and everything would be under strict supervision of the judicial and health authorities.

And it is that the debate on the approval for medicinal purposes of cannabis has been carried, for several years, by multiple sectors, mainly producers, represented by the Colombian Cannabis Industries Association (Asocolcanna) and other actors related to this activity.

“The dried cannabis flower, in addition to being a raw material, is also a finished product. In fact, it is the most prescribed and with the highest sales in the United States, Canada and Germany, where it accounts for over 50% of sales to patients in dispensaries, ”said Camilo de Guzmán, vice -Legal president of Natuera, a few months since.

It should be recalled that, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANISH), between January and November 2020, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, Germany and Switzerland these are the nations that have invested the most in Colombian medical cannabis.

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