The authorities of the Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis (Ircca) and of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) related to cannabis medicinal They discussed the state of the situation regarding access to this drug in the face of Special Commission on Addictions of the Chamber of Deputies; and explained that the local market is going through a difficult time in terms of investments in Uruguay.
Although the Executive power regulated the production of magisterial formulas with cannabis extracts and advanced several complementary legislations to facilitate the access to medical cannabis On the part of the population, the authorities who appeared before the parliamentarians acknowledged that “investors have had several problems”; At the same time that patients demand that civil associations be regulated to access medicines at the best price.
The use of medical cannabis is an aspect of the legalization of marijuana that was relegated to the background when it was discussed, ten years ago, the Law 19,172 which would end up authorizing and regulating the adult and recreational use of this crop. Only in 2019, with the Law 19,847 the medicinal use of cannabis was enabled, and the Decree 56/023 allowed access to magisterial formulas.
“Everything seems to indicate that we have available a tool that works where other therapies have failed,” said the National Secretary for Drugs, Daniel Radio, at the beginning of his presentation before the legislators of the commission. For this reason, he explained that it is necessary to incorporate “knowledge and learning to enable the possibility of people accessing cannabis for medicinal use,” he added.
Medical cannabis companies in trouble
Currently there 19 companies authorized for the production of medical cannabis and, particularly, drugs with cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychoactive component of the marijuana plant.
However, the scenario does not develop as expected, since investment in the sector does not match the number of species and drugs available. In this sense, for the deputy of the Broad Front Luis Gallothe current offer “is little, expensive and bad”.
For the front player, the problems are due to the red tape. However, Radio ruled that there are no such obstacles, but rather technical issues that must be met to guarantee the safety of the final products.
Also, the coordinator of the National Program for Access to Medicinal and Therapeutic Cannabis of the MPH, Carlos Lacava, He added that, beyond bureaucratic issues, “the investors They’ve had a lot of problems.” In fact, many of the 19 companies that are authorized in the country “They have requested the cancellation of the license” granted by the IRCCA “because they are not working, since their businesses have not been able to advance for various reasons, or because they have not been successful with the harvests and have not obtained the necessary quality, or because they have not been able to develop the extraction processes or put into pharmaceutical form”.
“In fact, some of the companies that are operating and that are preparing pharmaceutical forms to supply the market they are not working with all their installed capacityLacava insisted. Tied to this, “a illegal market due to the speed with which people are demanding answers, but they are not always possible to give”, especially with regard to the production of drugs for “pain management”, something that is notoriously linked to the use of THC —the psychoactive component of marijuana, which is not regulated in medical cannabis.
According to the MSP official, what happened is that the companies that installed themselves did so with “a much greater capacity than the plaza can absorb”, and although they have the possibility of expanding into the world market, “this has not happened, since practically none of the companies that are producing for Uruguay today have businesses abroad”.
Source: Ambito
