STJ authorizes man to grow up to 354 marijuana plants per year

Minister Rogério Schietti, of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), authorized a patient to plant marijuana to transport and extract Cannabis oil by hand, in order to treat generalized anxiety. In the decision, the magistrate determined that the man can plant up to 354 marijuana plants per year for “therapeutic” use, preventing any criminal repression and the sale of derivatives of the herb.

With the decision, the court disregards the arguments under discussion in Congress about the risks to health and public safety in allowing the planting of Cannabis in Brazil. Among them are the lack of scientific evidence on the medicinal benefits of products with elements of marijuana (with the exception of some indications for certain diseases), the difficulty of inspection by the public authorities of clandestine plantations, among others.

The patient claimed that he has suffered from anxiety since childhood and that he started to show more severe symptoms, such as severe stomach pains and sleep disturbances. In 2020, the man began a therapeutic treatment with cannabis, with prescription and medical follow-up. With the high cost of international and national medicines, the patient decided to go to court to guarantee his own production.

According to the minister, “is it appropriate or not for the Judiciary to grant a safe-conduct, in preventive habeas corpus, to prevent criminal repression against the domestic cultivation of Cannabis sativa with solely medicinal purposes”. This is not what is foreseen in Law 11.343/2006, the Law on Drugs.

To reinforce the decision, the minister also mentioned a judgment of the Court held in June last year, in which the right to cultivate marijuana for medicinal purposes was ratified to three patients, without considering the risks of intoxication and dependence.

The magistrates’ justification for releasing the artisanal production of cannabidiol oil for therapeutic purposes was that, for them, it would not represent “risk of injury to public health or any other legal interest protected by anti-drug legislation”. The understanding is that if there is a prescription and a report signed by a doctor and approved by Anvisa, there is no doubt that criminal repression should be ruled out in these cases.

The artisanal production of oil from marijuana, at levels that are safe for health, requires a series of specific equipment to extract cannabidiol or THC – two of the more than 1,700 chemical substances in cannabis. Due to the difficulty of inspection, there is a fear that similar judgments may facilitate the domestic cultivation of marijuana that ends up being distorted from its original purpose, being used for recreational use, consequently causing chemical dependence.

In December 2019, when the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) released the import of cannabidiol and THC extracts for the manufacture of products, it defined that these compounds would be marked with a “black box”, due to the risk of dependence, increased tolerance (the need to ingest increasing amounts to have the minimum desired effect) and intoxication. Agency-approved marijuana-based products (not considered drugs due to lack of consolidated scientific evidence of efficacy) must be prescribed with a yellow (THC index less than 0.2%) or blue (THC index greater than 0.2%) prescription. 2%, higher risk).

In March of this year, the STJ assumed the power to decide on the release of marijuana plantations in the country, in a lawsuit filed by the company DNA Soluções em Biotecnologia, interested in the commercial use of the plant. When analyzing the decision of the STF, lawyers and political scientists fear the interference of the Judiciary in matters that should be defined and discussed by the National Congress. Instead of respecting the progress of the Legislature, which can maintain the ban on planting cannabis Based on arguments of reasonableness and public safety, the Judiciary forces the Legislature to decide or it itself tries to change the law during trials, without having the authority to do so.