Reuters
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chileans are increasingly growing their own
cannabis for medical purposes as the conservative South American
nation begins loosening legal prohibitions on the formerly
illegal plant.
In 2015, Chile legalized the use of medical marijuana, following
a wave of other Latin American nations that are slowly making the
cultivation, distribution, and consumption of cannabis easier.
Earlier in May, pharmacies in the capital city of Santiago began
selling cannabis-based medicines, the first time such treatments
have been offered by drugstores in Latin America.
Boosters of the plant are making sure Chileans with chronic pain
have the know-how to grow marijuana, even as doing so occupies a
legal gray area.
In Santiago on Friday, Chile's pro-cannabis Daya Foundation
hosted a workshop teaching those with medical conditions how to
grow the plant on their own.
Last year, the foundation inaugurated the largest medical
marijuana farm in Latin America under the supervision of Chile's
Agriculture and Livestock Service.
"Almost a century of prohibition filled us with misinformation
and, worse, stopped millions of people who could have received
relief from using this plant," said Ana Maria Gazmuri, a 1980s
soap opera star and advocate of holistic medicine, who heads the
foundation.
"So today this has changed in Chile and we can say, additionally,
that we are leaders in Latin America in the development of
medical cannabis."
Among those who attended the workshop on Friday was Carlos
Antonio Ortiz Diaz, a 49-year-old miner with glaucoma.
"No medicines have given me results up to now. I have to change
them every month, and I don't see any improvement," he said.
"With cannabis, I'm using it two times a week on average, and the
pain has diminished a bit."
Chile's Congress is currently debating a bill that would
explicitly allow people to grow their own plants, and Argentina
and Colombia are following similar paths.
Uruguay became a global pioneer when it legalized the
cultivation, distribution, and consumption of marijuana in late
2013. Pharmacies in that country will begin legal sales of
recreational cannabis from July.
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