Chile Begins Growing Cannabis for Medical Use

Chile will join the rank of countries making shifts in cannabis reform around the world. Reports reveal that the Latin country has already started cultivating its first crop of cannabis plants grown from seeds that were imported from the Netherlands. The plants are being grown in a Chilean principality of Santiago and are expected to be ready for harvest in April. The plants will be used in a pilot medical marijuana program and although the flowers won’t be available to patients, they will be used to make oil that will be provided to the 200 eligible patients

The Daya Foundation, the group that solicited the one-year permit, will oversee the program that will allow 850 plants to be grown on a heavily-guarded 9,150 square-foot plot in La Florida. The program will be accompanied by a clinical study performed by a local university. The University of Valparaiso’s Pharmacy and Chemistry Faculty will serve as technical support for the oil extraction process. For now, patients will be not legally allowed the cultivate their own cannabis.

Outside of the United States, most of the global attention has been on countries like Spain and Uruguay making waves in cannabis history. No doubt, there has been a number of notable occurrences in the marijuana world from the emergence and downfall of many cannabis clubs in Spain to Uruguay becoming the first country to legalize cannabis as a nation. It’s a growing movement that is sure to follow the slow but steady approach that might lead to widespread change. Even now, Italy has begun to allow its military to grow weed and an Israeli company just recently developed a cannabis inhaler for pain relief. People all over the world are truly starting to understand the impact cannabis can have.

“We’re living at a time, in Chile and the rest of the world, where it’s not reasonable to close yourself to new evidence. Marijuana can provide some dignity to those who suffer,” said La Florida district Mayor Rodolfo Carter.

This historic moves makes Chile the first Latin American country to approve the cultivation of medical cannabis.

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