On May 4th there was a march held in the Morazán Park in favor of medical cannabis. Hours later the respective authorities showed their concern.
Bernando González, from Costa Rica Cultiva, stated that they were demonstrating in favor of cannabis home cultivation for medicinal use.
Guillermo Araya, director of the Costa Rican Institute on Drugs (ICD) spoke about it and recalled that
the law has not changed, Article 58 of Law 8204 gives a penalty of eight to five years in prison to anyone who markets or cultivates substances that are forbidden.”
However, article two of the same law opens the discussion, since it allows the use of cannabis for research purposes, for medicinal purposes and even for animal training purposes (so that they detect the presence of psychotropic substances to fight international drug trafficking).
In addition, the correct word for this discussion is regulation and not legalization, since it is already legal.
What you have to do is the regulation for medicinal use, from the legal point of view there is a gap, but we do not move away from that solidary, compassionate position towards people who need cannabis to complement their treatment…”
explained Araya.
Javier Vindas, coordinator of the medical cannabis institutional commission, agreed with the statements made by the ICD hierarchy.
If the state allows that (home cultivation for medicinal use), it would be putting public health at risk because there would be no pharmaceutical verification,”
explained Vindas.