Although there are numerous legal and judicial regulations throughout the country, the criminal prosecution of those who grow cannabis for medicinal purposes continues to concern organizations. The constitutional lawyer and legal representative of Macame, Sunday Rondina explained the scope of the public hearing convened by the Court for the end of April. Before the press, the lawyer indicated that “It is a fight that gives results and that is done with the permanent persecution of the State”.
Read more ► Medicinal cannabis: mothers from Santa Fe will participate in a hearing organized by the National Court
“The national, provincial and municipal states declare in their laws, ordinances, decrees and resolutions. They claim to support the medicinal use of cannabis, but in practice the States persecute mothers and hinder access to medical cannabis”Rondina warned.
Macame and other organizations have been denouncing for years the difficulties they face to get medicine for their children. “It is an odyssey to get industrial products, and those industrial products do not always meet the needs of each child. In many cases, the products are very expensive or there are problems for social works to recognize them and until recently, free access was prevented, “revealed the lawyer representing Macame.
Along the same lines, Rondina differentiated the medicinal aspect of cannabis from the psychoactive aspect and recalled the course they had to face until they reached the highest court of justice. “The mothers have generated an enormous experience in cultivation: they learned to cultivate and extract medicine for their children and that should not be confused with narcotics. The UN removed medical cannabis from the list of narcotics. It has nothing to do with it here”, specified the specialist in constitutional law.
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The legal representative of Macame specified that in 2018 an amparo appeal was filed with the Santa Fe federal court to obtain authorization to cultivate mothers from the province of Santa Fe, but it was rejected. Then, the Court of Appeals of Rosario was resorted to, where the answer was not satisfactory either. Given this scenario, it was decided to go to court.
“Moms need access to medical cannabis in a way that their children lack. For that they need the cultivation they do at home to be decriminalized. The mothers want to continue cultivating without taking risks”, highlighted Rondina and assured that “Permanently there are raids and arrests of people for having medicinal cannabis. The only way to solve this is to decriminalize the behavior of mothers who grow crops, for the Court to say that it is not a crime”.
“The Court realized that the Macame case is important”
Rondina underlined the Court’s decision to summon Macame to debate the decriminalization of the cultivation of medical cannabis. “The Argentine Court is overwhelmed with cases. It receives about 80,000 cases per year and dictates about 20,000 sentences. Of those 80,000, every year it chooses 10 that it considers the most important at the constitutional level and calls for a public hearing. The Court realized that the Macame case is importantbecause it is an association, because the foundations are raised in a certain way and because raises the underlying issue: decriminalizationnot just permission for a particular case. Something is going to happen on April 27 and 28 in Argentina. For the first time the Court holds a public hearing on cannabis”.
“As in hide and seek, Macame is going to free all the companions. The result that Macame obtains will establish jurisprudence and will serve everyone who is in similar situations”highlighted the lawyer.
The province of Santa Fe said that it could not endorse the cultivation of the mothers
As revealed by the constitutionalist, the province of Santa Fe, during the administration of Michael Lifschitz refused to endorse the cultivation of medicinal cannabis by mothers and limited himself to leaving the matter in the hands of the Pharmaceutical Industrial Laboratory (LIF). The same thing happened in the instance of appeal, already with the State prosecutor Ruben Wederin the current management of Omar Perotti. “Now the province also has to go to court.” On this point, Rondina made a special request to Governor Omar Perotti: “It is important that you do not attack the mothers in the court hearing. They are mothers and children from Santa Fe who are asking the Court for a measure to be able to give their children the medicine they need”.
The Supreme Court, in October of last year, said that the medicinal result of cannabis is indisputable and gave it as proven (Bustos Case). With this measure, according to Rondina, “the medical discussion is over, medical cannabis works.” In addition, the highest court said that medical cannabis is not narcotic and that it should be free. “What the Court has not yet said is that the punishment for the cultivation of medicinal cannabis must end,” she warned.
“Cannabis came to change the quality of life of our children”
The owner of Macame, Laura Acosta highlighted that “nobody has rights over the plant and even less to put limits on people to use it, especially in a therapeutic way”.
“When I started giving my daughter the medicine, the State was not present. We have many varieties of plants because in the case of refractory epilepsy it is difficult to control, there are no medications that solve the situation. Different components are needed because they refract to many strains, we cannot have a single plant. We need the medicine at home,” he explained.
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When asked what it means to go to court, Acosta acknowledged that “it fills us with pride for the sustained fight we are carrying out,” and stressed that “we always seek to guarantee access to all treatments.”
On the other hand, the representative of Macame explained through cultivation “we have autonomy and we want to sustain it. Cannabis came to change the quality of life of our children. If they take the plant, they take everything away from us.”
Laura Acosta also referred to the persecution by the State of those who grow crops and pointed to the lack of training of both federal and provincial police forces. “Despite the Reprocann there is still persecution. There is a lack of training for the police forces and the State does not keep an eye on it. It should not exist and less if it is a patient. Today we are authorized to have only nine plants and I consider that it should not be like that because from the door of my house to the inside it is a private activity, and we do something that is good for our children and that is scientifically supported”.
For his part, the province’s ombudsman, Jorge Henn – who also accompanies Macame in his fight – described the debate on medical cannabis as “the process where the social view of medical cannabis has evolved thanks to organizations like Macame”.
“There is scientific evidence of the medicinal use of cannabis. We intended that those who cultivate, because they noticed that it changed their children’s lives, not go to jail. At the time we filed an action with the prosecutor Rodríguez, then with the Federal Chamber of Rosario and the measure was rejected. The unconstitutionality of the norm and a precautionary measure that prevented the persecution of the growers were raised,” said the former legislator and lieutenant governor.
In the same direction, Henn highlighted that “Santa Fe has opened a new path, where the work of Macame and the contribution of Rondina, have allowed an unprecedented event that is to discuss the application of the drug law, the medicinal use of cannabis and the role of mothers.
Lastly, he regretted that “There have been national and provincial laws, but in many cases they have been insufficient”.
All organizations and people who want to give their opinion at the hearing have until March 17 to register online requesting to be “curiae friends.”