Peru legalizes the cultivation of medicinal cannabis by patient associations

Medicinal cannabis was legalized in Peru in 2017. However, patient access to the products remained difficult, as very few pharmacies marketed them. Since last Sunday, July 25, and after the request of patients and relatives, the medicinal cannabis cultivation is already legal after the enactment by the Government of the law recently approved by the Congress.

This new law allows the medicinal cannabis cultivation, its processing, transportation and storage to patient associations registered in an official registry, the National Registry of Cannabis Users Patients.

The licenses for the cultivation will be issued through the Ministry of Health. Additionally, the National Police of Peru Anti-Drug Department will develop a security protocol, in order to guarantee the “physical intangibility” of cannabis and its derivatives for medicinal and therapeutic use, as well as the finished product.

The original draft law submitted to the Congress by the Cannabis Gotas de Esperanza association and the Federation of Medicinal Cannabis (Fecame) also considered personal self-cultivation. However, it was not finally included in the enacted text and was authorized exclusively by patient associations.

With this new law it is therefore allowed, that the patients themselves, once signed in the registry, cultivate their plants and produce their derivatives in the associations authorized for this purpose.