This Wednesday, October 17, 2018, Canada made history with the “Cannabis Act” which legalizes recreational marijuana, in doing so Canada became the second country in the world, only after Uruguay (2013), to allow the use of cannabis for recreational purposes. In the United States, consumption of recreational marijuana is legal in 8 states, but it is still illegal at a Federal level.

The use of cannabis is now legal for adults (the age varies from 18 to 19 depending on the province) who excitedly waited in line today to buy their first legal weed from one of the authorized pot retailers. This market is valued in some $4.6 billion a year and there are currently 120 authorized producers.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Canada since 2001.

As it was expected, the Cannabis Act faced some resistance, those opposing it consider it was a hasty measure that involves many security and public health risks; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau considers that legalizing the drug will restrict the access minors have to it and will eliminate a source of income for criminal organizations; Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, Bill Blair, considers they can eliminate up to 25% of the black market by the end of 2018 and close to half in a year time; the Ministry of Justice estimates that eliminating the black market could take at least four years.

In Costa Rica, however, the situation remains very different. Initiatives and different efforts have been carried out for years by several groups to at least get medicinal marijuana legalized in the country, however, the groups that oppose this idea are many and strong, they see it as the first step on the road to legalization of recreational cannabis and they consider this to be more harmful than beneficial; yet, statistics show that there are currently more pot smokers than tobacco smokers in the country, and 78.1% of the population considers that is very easy to have access to marijuana (according to a survey by the University of Costa Rica).
In the country, those that push for the legalization of medical cannabis base their defense in Article 2 of the Psychotropic Law that could be interpreted to authorize the use of components made from cannabis for medicinal purposes. What is missing and is required are rules that limit the consumption of this components and their commercialization.

There is also an ongoing discussion on whether the growing of marijuana for personal use is or not a crime; although there are different positions on the matter, a recent case in which the Sala Tercera declared that attorney Mario Alberto Cerdas could not be declared guilty of cultivating cannabis because there was no proof that the illicit substances had the end purpose of being sold or distributed to third parties or trafficking and there was no risk to public health, gave a small victory to those that consider this practice to be legal.

“The cannabis population won the battle of 95 years of prohibition. It can be produced, consumed, transported and sold. This allows new companies to be created, more jobs, options for health purposes in its varied forms and less ridiculous expenses for the ‘war against drug trafficking’”, shared Costa Rica Alchemy, the First Association for Medicinal Marijuana in Latin America, on its Facebook page.

The truth is that legalization of cannabis in Costa Rica for medicinal and recreational purposes still seem far in the horizon.