Brazil approves medical cannabis but blocks cultivation

Brazil's medicines regulator, Anvisa, yesterday approved the availability of cannabis-based medicines, but in a separate vote blocked a proposal to allow the cultivation of medical cannabis.

Until now, patients who needed access to cannabis-based treatment could import it from abroad via a system of government-issued authorizations. From now on, companies interested in manufacturing cannabis-based products will also have to import the ingredients. Brazil will not immediately join Colombia and Uruguay, which have developed their own production/processing/distribution channels for cannabis. medical marijuana.

Anvisa announced that the new rules would be published in the country's official gazette in the next few days and would come into force 90 days after that date. It has also defined specific rules for the manufacture, import, sale, packaging, marketing and regulation of this new class of cannabis products.

Medical cannabis products will only be available for sale in registered pharmacies and on prescription. Products containing more than 0.2% THC will be authorized for sale to terminally ill patients or those who have exhausted alternative treatment options. Others will only be able to buy products containing less than 0.2% THC.

President Jair Bolsonaro has in the past expressed its support for medical cannabis. But the ultraconservative leader «will not allow loopholes in the law to be used for the planting and consumption of marijuana», his spokesman, Otavio Rego Barros, told reporters in August.

Since 2015, Anvisa has allowed people with a medical prescription to import cannabidiol (CBD) for the treatment of epilepsy and chronic illnesses.