admin14Considering mainly its privileged logistical position and the irrefutable fact of being able to comfortably access the medical cannabis market -which moves approximately US $ 150,000 million a year in the world, with strong projections of sustained growth-, Panama has taken an important step in this direction. by adopting a legal framework consistent with an activity that will have a significant socioeconomic impact in the region, mainly due to the fact that challenging attitudes and perceptions of society towards the typical cannabis consumer continue to change day by day.
As more countries legally adopt the medicinal and recreational use of cannabis, Panama does not escape the global trend to relax and establish measures that allow its exploitation and use in the therapeutic and medicinal industry.
The law that regulates the medicinal and therapeutic use of cannabis and its derivatives in Panama and dictates other provisions was recently sanctioned by the President of the Republic.
The purpose of the norm is to create a legal framework that allows the use and monitored and controlled access of medicinal cannabis and its derivatives for therapeutic, medical, veterinary, scientific and research purposes in the national territory, becoming the first country in the Central American region to adopt legislation in this regard, which has already been adopted by several Latin American countries, including Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
With this, the country seeks to exploit, regulate and in some way control the activities of import, export, cultivation, production, manufacture, laboratory analysis, acquisition of any kind, storage, transportation, marketing, distribution, final disposal, use of the seeds duly authorized for sowing the cannabis plant, as well as derivatives of medicinal cannabis, for medical, veterinary, therapeutic, scientific and research purposes.
The norm stipulates that both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agricultural Development will be the entities that will govern activities related to cannabis and establishes the figure of the Registry of Patients Users of Cannabis and its Derivatives for Medicinal and Therapeutic Use, in order to carry a regular control of patients in their use.
The law also creates the Technical Council for Medicinal Cannabis attached to the Ministry of Health, which will be in charge of the design and monitoring of the objectives of this Law. Likewise, it establishes the National Program for the Study and Medicinal Use of Cannabis and its Derivatives, which Its objectives will be to promote access to cannabis-derived products for everyone who joins the program under the conditions established by regulation, to develop scientific evidence on different therapeutic alternatives to health problems that are not addressed by conventional medical treatments, and to investigate the Therapeutic and scientific purposes of the cannabis plant and its derivatives in human therapeutics, providing an excellent opportunity for the country to promote and innovate in the scientific development of this field.
The norm contemplates the creation and granting of two types of licenses:
1. The Medicinal Cannabis Derivatives Manufacturing License, which includes the acquisition of any title and the importation of medicinal cannabis for the purpose of manufacturing derivatives, as well as storage, transportation, commercialization and exportation. For those interested in the use of seeds and the cultivation of plants, they must also have authorization from the Ministry of Agricultural Development, which will be issued only to licensees holding the License for the Manufacture of Medicinal Cannabis Derivatives and includes activities related to import, acquisition of seeds, cannabis seedlings, and / or plant tissues of the cannabis plant, sowing, propagation, cultivation, harvest, post-harvest, as well as the activities of storage, transport, laboratory analysis, export and final disposal of seeds , seedlings, plant tissues, plants and flowers of cannabis and the final agronomic product of cannabis for medicinal use and establishes the requirements that interested parties must meet to acquire them.
2. License for Scientific Research on Medicinal Cannabis, which will be granted to universities duly recognized by the State and scientific research centers, in order to develop scientific research projects on cannabis for medicinal, veterinary or therapeutic use, for which purpose The documentation that accredits the research project must be submitted to the corresponding control authority.
The licenses have an approximate cost of USD150,000.00 non-refundable and perhaps the most relevant provisions regarding them are the following: only those persons may request the licenses.