Latin America’s largest medicinal marijuana farm was formally inaugurated yesterday, marking another step in the region’s growing acceptance of therapeutic uses for the formerly illegal plant.
The 6,900-stalk plantation, located in the small town of Colbun, some 275kms south of Santiago, will help treat some 4,000 patients from across Chile, organisers said.
This project follows on the work of a smaller, experimental plantation at a secret location in the capital, Santiago, and comes as Chile’s Congress debates the decriminalisation of small amounts of marijuana for personal use and cultivation.
The head of the foundation behind the project, Ana Maria Gazmuri, said opinions about the use of cannabis were shifting in traditionally conservative Chile.
“This farm will further permit people to see for themselves the reality of the plant, and what its uses are,” Gazmuri, a 1980s TV soap opera star and advocate of “holistic” medicine, said.
Project organisers hope to harvest 1.5mn tonnes of marijuana between March and May, under the supervision of the government’s agricultural service.
Organisers told La Tercera newspaper they will be working with a variety of laboratories and universities to develop cannabis-based therapies that can help patients with chronic pain, complications from cancer and epilepsy, among other conditions. In 2013, Uruguay moved to fully legalise marijuana, a pioneering step that has been watched closely across the globe.
A Mexican court ruling in November opened the door to limited amounts of legal cannabis cultivation. Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos in December signed a decree that legalised medical marijuana, which he said does not weaken the government’s fight against illicit crops and drug trafficking.