Just on the day that “420” is celebrated, which could be considered the “global day of marijuana”, the Government -through the Ministry of Health- published in the Official Gazette the decision to extend the validity of the permit to cultivate and transport cannabis from one to three years for authorized medicinal users and incorporated into the National Registry, known by its institutional abbreviation “They reproduce.
As he could confirm infobae According to official sources, the Ministry of Health has authorized 195,000 people since the implementation of this system in November 2020, with a notable acceleration in recent months as a result of an improvement in the system that processes applications.
As confirmed by this medium, in February 2022 -one year after its start- there were 40,000 authorized: in 14 months the users quintupled authorized by the state to have up to nine female plants in their houses for himself or for third parties and carry up to 40 grams of flowers or oils within the national territory.
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Patients enrolled in the Cannabis Program Registry (Reprocann) and authorized from now on will have their certificate valid for three years. “This seeks to improve the administrative management related to said certificate, based on the experience of these two years of operation of the registry,” explained sources from the Ministry of Health.
The validity of the permit was one of the issues that users claimed the most, since they considered that one year of validity was a very short period for the type of procedure that has to be done and the high value of the consultations of the doctors who sign indication and consent on the Reprocann platform, an essential condition to obtain authorization.
The Reprocann not limited to certain pathologies, unlike the original letter of law 27,350, sanctioned in 2017, which reduced the use -without offering forms of access- to patients with refractory epilepsy. Since February 2020, it is enough to have a medical indication and validation on the official registration page of the health professional.
According to the sources consulted, the districts with authorized elders are province of Buenos Aires, CABA, Córdoba and Santa Fe. The largest age group is the one between 20 and 40 years old and the most frequent pathologies for which doctors indicate cannabis as a treatment are chronic pain, anxiety and insomnia. There are also many requests for neurodegenerative diseases, such as sclerosis, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’sand articular, as arthritis or osteoarthritisas well as others linked to stress, such as he bruxism.
Until last February, cannabis users filed complaints over delays of more than two months on the part of the health portfolio to authorize applications. However, that month the obstruction was uncovered and thousands of approvals came out in a few weeks.
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“In response to the strong growth in applications for enrollment in the program in recent months, a review of the procedure for evaluating procedures was carried out, which allowed speeding up resolution times and implied lowering the average wait to less than 10 business days” , they explained from Health.
In that February, 33,000 procedures were stuck in the evaluation stage. Currently, with the system improved, the stock of unresolved applications has been reduced to 1,600 and, according to Reprocann sources, all require additional information to complete their evaluation.
As promised by the portfolio led by Carla Vizzotti, a special module will be enabled in the Reprocann for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), which will be able to attend up to 150 patients. “They are strategic actors in public policy on medical cannabis in Argentina, they are important,” they clarified when asked that the announcement was made months ago and has not yet been resolved.
The process to join Reprocann is simple. It is done through the Reprocann website, it is free and the user must choose whether to register as a consumer, as a grower for his own use or for third parties. To be authorized, you need to have the consent of the health professional who, in parallel with the user, enters the patient’s procedures.
In another ministerial resolution also published this Thursday, Health incorporates the THC molecule -tetrahydrocannabinol- at 1% to the pharmaceutically active ingredients, which until now was 0.3%, although this figure will continue for finished products. “This will favor national productive developments in terms of the supply of this input for the preparation of therapeutic tools that require them,” detailed sources from the health portfolio.
This decision goes hand in hand with the regulation of the industrial cannabis production law, which also incorporates the permit to produce derivatives of this plant with up to 1% THC. as anticipated infobae days ago, the regulation was raised by the authorities of the Cannabis Regulation Agency (Ariccame) to the Casa Rosada and the signature of Vilma Ibarra, Legal and Technical Secretary, is expected for publication in the Official Gazette.
In cases where the THC concentration exceeds 1%, the products will be regulated as psychotropic and the regime corresponding to psychotropic substances will be applied to them, that is, they will have to go through the National Medicines Agency (ANMAT) in order to be produced.
In addition to all of the above, the National Food Commission (CONAL) is advancing in the incorporation of hemp into the Argentine Food Code, which will allow the development and production of food based on the seed of the plant, considered a “superfood” due to its richness in Omega 3, 6 and 9.
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“We seek to promote the development of regional economies dedicated to this productive sector and accompany existing national regulations on the cultivation of cannabis and industrial hemp. There will be a tendency to make better use of the different nutritive properties of cannabis”, they indicated from the Ministry of Health. It is estimated that in a not too distant period these products will be able to be purchased in supermarkets and stores in the country: from salad oils to seeds and much more.
In addition, as part of the “cannabis package” that the Government presents in an election year, the National Ministry of Health and the National Public Prosecutor’s Office signed a Framework Agreement for Institutional Cooperation and a Complementary Act.
Its objective is to adopt joint coordination measures for the generation of a direct channel of communication between both parties, which, according to the authorities, consists of technologically adapting a safe course for tax requirements and their respective responses to criminal situations that require checking. quickly, before the intervention of security forces, whether or not a person is authorized by Reprocann, before they proceed to raids, violent interventions and, as often happens, kidnapping of plants and oils that, in most cases , are transcendental for people’s health.
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