Lula government wants to regulate marijuana plantations in Brazil

The national secretary for Drug Policies and Asset Management at the Ministry of Justice, Marta Machado, informed that the Lula government (PT) intends to regulate the planting of marijuana to replace the importation of the plant’s active principles for therapeutic purposes. The information, which violates the Drug Law (Law 11,343 of 2006), which prohibits the cultivation of any variant of marijuana in Brazilian territory, was given in an interview with Folha de S. Paulo, this Tuesday (11).

According to the secretary, Brazil needs a broad and adequate regulation of the importation and cultivation of cannabis with low concentration of THC (component that generates psychoactive effects), for industrial, pharmaceutical and medicinal purposes. However, jurists have already pointed out that the release of a plant species based on the fact that it has a lower THC content would imply inspection problems, as it would be difficult to assess the type of cannabis of a plantation.

The secretary also pointed out that releasing the plantation will be one of the priority agendas of the National Drug Policy Council (Conad), which has members from the Ministry of Health, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and the Federal Police, in addition to other folders. According to Marta Machado, the intention to regulate is to “reduce the price of products based on cannabis and thus avoid the judicialization that occurs throughout the country”.

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“There are models that make this authorization only for the pharmaceutical industry, others recognize the associations. Senad does not have any a priori model, the intention is to widely discuss with all the actors involved a prudent system of regulation, inspection and monitoring that avoids deviation for recreational use and that prioritizes local production and Brazilian industry able to enter this market”, explained the secretary to Folha.

Since the beginning of the Lula government, some ministers such as the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira, have already shown signs that the release of marijuana plantations for medicinal use is one of the important agendas for the government, even if there is no consolidated scientific evidence on the theme. The indication of Viviane Sedola, CEO and founder of the digital platform Dr. Cannabis, which connects doctors and patients in Brazil, to the Economic, Social and Sustainable Development Council, called “Conselhão”, also reinforces this agenda.

In a hearing in the Chamber of Deputies, Minister Teixeira reinforced that the release of planting will be important for the “production of medicines and even food based on marijuana”, and may even “benefit family farming”. “Today in Brazil, there are families, groups of families of patients, working in the production of Cannabis for medicinal use”, he said.

The government’s attempt to liberate the cultivation of cannabiss in Brazil, in addition to running over the Drug Law, also directly interferes with the decision of the Legislative, since the subject has been discussed in Bill 399/15. The proposal awaits analysis by the Plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, but still has no forecast of being ruled. However, the plantation has been allowed in case of obtaining a favorable judicial decision.

In March of this year, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) assumed the power to decide on the release of the plantation of cannabis in the country, in a lawsuit filed by the company DNA Soluções em Biotecnologia, interested in the commercial use of the plant. To assume the power to decide on the matter, the court proceeded with a proposal for an Incident of Assumption of Competence (IAC). An IAC is the statement that a certain topic, relevant and of social repercussion, would need analysis by the STJ collegiate to support decisions in other courts in the country.

The analysis of the case through an IAC opens the way for the possible granting of what the company asks at the end of the trial, which would mean disobeying Brazilian legislation and trampling the Legislative Power, configuring judicial activism.

The marijuana lobby behind this pressure for the release of planting is large, as well as the attempt to guarantee the legalization of the drug, with medicinal arguments – contested by bodies such as the Federal Council of Medicine itself and the Brazilian Association of Psychiatry.