A medical marijuana bill being debated in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly since 2014 now has the necessary support to pass plenary by May 1^st, according to Rep. Marvin Delgado Atencio, the PAC lawmaker who first presented the bill.

The bill, which now has the approval of lawmakers from almost all caucuses, seeks to legalize and regulate the cultivation of cannabis for the purpose of producing medicines and medical treatments, including tablets, suppositories, ointments, sprays, patches, and injections, amongst others.

The bill would create a research institute attached to the Ministry of Health, which would be responsible for conducting studies and granting licenses and permits.  The institute would also be in charge of issuing prescription cards for consumers.

Atencio said in 2014 that products derived from medical marijuana could be a significant source of tax revenue, estimating it could generate some $20 million annually for the State. “The bill includes concessions, licenses, permits and a tax of 7%,” Atencio has said.

Costa Rica’s public health and social security administration, known as CCSS or ‘La Caja’ has even expressed its support for the bill, and could provide marijuana and marijuana-derived medicines free of charge to patients that required it, according to Atencio.

The bill does not address the issue of recreational use of marijuana because it “is already permitted by Costa Rican law,” according to Rep. Jose Alberto Alfaro (ML), and the purpose of the bill is not to promote recreational marijuana use, Rep. Atencio stressed.

 

Is recreational marijuana use already legal?

Law 8204 (Law on Narcotics), passed in 2001, enhanced and clarified existing legislation contained in the 1988 Law on Drugs (Law 7093), and specifically decriminalized the personal use of all controlled substances (though they are to be confiscated if discovered, and the user is to be offered voluntary, State-funded drug treatment). The law does not, however determine what is considered “personal amounts” of any controlled substance, a matter that is usually left to the discretion of law enforcement and prosecutors.

Meanwhile, while the law is very clear that the sale or distribution of controlled substances is a serious crime, existing legislation conflicts itself on the subject of the manufacturing (or, in the case of cannabis, the cultivation) of marijuana and other controlled substances.

Under one common interpretation of existing law, the cultivation or manufacture of controlled substances, including cannabis, is explicitly a crime – even if done strictly for personal consumption and in small amounts.

However, under a more recent interpretation – highlighted by the January acquittal of 57-year-old attorney, Mario Alberto Cerdas, who was facing 24 years in prison after having been arrested multiple times for growing marijuana on the roof of his home – a three-judge panel in a two-to-one verdict determined that Cerdas should be acquitted, because there was insufficient evidence that the man intended to sell or distribute the substance.

One of the judges on the panel, attempting to clarify the ruling, said that while growing marijuana is in fact illegal, it carries no criminal penalty if the intent to sell or distribute the drug cannot be determined.