The Chilean government has approved the cultivation of 7,000 marijuana seeds in the Maule region for medicinal use, making it the largest such plantation in Latin America. This crop is intended to provide medicinal treatment for 4,000 cancer patients, patients with refractory epilepsy, and patients suffering from chronic pain.<\/p>\n
The permit was granted by the state-run Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) of Maule, in the center of the country.<\/p>\n
The Daya Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes alternative therapies to alleviate human suffering, has stated that this project will advance the knowledge and research of cannabis for therapeutic applications. The National Cancer Institute and two other hospitals will be responsible for these clinical trials.<\/p>\n
This project will be financed by about twenty municipalities in Chile, among others.<\/p>\n
A similar project was carried out in Florida, which resulted in a phytopharmaceutical that is still undergoing clinical trials. The results will be available in the first half of 2016.<\/p>\n
According to Daya, the phytopharmaceutical resulting from the study will be developed by the private laboratory Knop and the Public Health Institute. They also note that the phytopharmaceutical will be low-cost, as importing medications from international laboratories is more expensive.<\/p>\n
The director of the Daya Foundation, Ana Mar\u00eda Gazmuri, stated that this project places Chile at the forefront of medicinal cannabis in Latin America.<\/p>\n
Sergio S\u00e1nchez, a doctor at the Santiago-Regional Medical Association of Chile, believes that in addition to having specific plantations to create a drug, the consumption of medicinal marijuana should also be regulated, allowing consumers who wish to do so to have their plants at home, as well as regulating the existence of other plantations and regulating the quality of the plants and their concentrations.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Health Committee of the Chamber of Deputies is discussing a bill, which still needs to be approved by Congress, to decriminalize the cultivation of marijuana for private consumption and its cultivation and sale for medicinal purposes.<\/p>\n