The members of the Azul Medicinal Cannabis Civil Association, Pablo Murguiarte and Juan David Prado, referred in dialogue with this newspaper to the process that led to the formation of this organization that has been working in this city for a few months and carrying out different actions of jointly with UNICEN and with different Azuleñas institutions.
At the beginning of the talk they explained that Juan David and Jonatán Pinelli were the first two actors who began to mobilize and presented a draft ordinance in the local deliberative, which was later raised and approved and later vetoed by the municipal mayor.
“We started working with the ordinance project that Councilwoman Paula Canevello presented at the time, where a registry of growers in Azul was going to be created and the permits to cultivate were going to be delivered, but the ordinance became obsolete with the creation of Reprocann. And we were struggling to set up an intersectoral table for medicinal cannabis in the Municipality of Azul and more or less that’s where the genesis of the civil association came from,” said Prado, who also reported that after opening the only Growshop that this city currently has, they began to receive many queries about the use and access to medicinal cannabis oil and highlighted: “People look for the oil a lot because everyone has an acquaintance or family member who used it and who gave them good results. And many people who were looking for oil We began to realize that they were selling him anything and they didn’t even know what they were taking.
“We got together to find a way to start informing people and so that those who need it can make their oil. And that is why we decided to create the association to educate people both on the subject of cultivation, extractions and in how to produce cannabis oil at home” he added.
In this sense, they highlighted that the first approach at the institutional level was with the National University of the Center (UNICEN) who invited them to integrate a broad interdisciplinary work table that encompasses the cities of Azul, Tandil and Olavarría.
“During a first talk we did at the Faculty of Agronomy, Dr. Analía Fortunato, who works at the Pintos Hospital, approached us and told us that she became interested in the subject after hearing in her office that many of her patients were using of cannabis oil and she approached us so that as growers we can give her a hand because from the medical point of view she understands many things, but when it comes to cultivation, not so much” they pointed out.
Along these lines, they also anticipated that the health professional has an interesting project in the pipeline to implement a palliative care service in the municipal health center that includes the use of cannabis oil, if required by the pathology of each patient.
On the other hand, they indicated that it was Fortunato who approached councilor Pilar Álvarez with the idea of forming an intersectoral table for medicinal cannabis, taking as a reference the experience already in development in the neighboring city of Tandil.
In his turn, Murguiarte stressed that after maintaining the first contacts with referents of the UNICEN staff, they were able to verify that the work inertia was very intense and stated: “They have been working for five years and have a different rhythm, another speed and it is very difficult for them to stop. And we told them that the fundamental thing here was to train the security forces and the judiciary and also train the doctors because many did not dare to come to the meetings and others hesitated to prescribe cannabis oil for the quality of the oil that is going around”.
And mentioning another of the activities that they were able to carry out successfully together with UNICEN in this city, they mentioned the talk that took place at the headquarters of the Bar Association of the Judicial Department of Azul, in which public defenders from Azul and the region participated, prosecutors and Judge Tapia of the city of Mar del Plata.
“After that talk, the rapprochement with the security forces and with the judiciary changed a lot and that was lubricated much more when in the last meeting of the intersectoral table we had the presence of members of the College of Magistrates and Officials and the head of the local anti-narcotics division of the police of the province of Buenos Aires” remarked Pablo who in turn reported that this Tuesday at noon there will be a new meeting of the intersectoral table that was created within the scope of the Deliberative Council.
Juan David Prado is the president of the Blue Medicinal Cannabis Civil Association and in a conversation with this medium he assured: “We decided to create the association to educate people on the subject of cultivation, extractions and how to produce cannabis oil at home. “.
“A stigma that is falling”
Consulted by this means, the spokespersons of the Blue Medicinal Cannabis Civil Association considered that currently access to the Cannabis Program Registry (REPROCANN), created to register and authorize people who meet the requirements to access derivatives of the cannabis plant, for medicinal, therapeutic and/or pain palliative purposes, is not complex.
“You have to go to a government website that is reprocann.msal.com.ar and upload personal data in a form and then you have to make a consultation with a doctor who is linked through the same Reprocann platform,” Prado said. who also indicated that for now the only Azuleña doctor noted in that registry is Dr. Analía Fortunato.
Later, the president of the local association maintained that, in his opinion, the negative stigma on the cannabis plant is falling and reflected: “Today it is no longer so horrifying to talk about marijuana and the current news at the national level already speaks of plantations that is in Jujuy and without going any further, this week INASE approved the sale of cannabis seeds, the new Reprocann platform was presented in the Ministry of Health and the reality cannot be ignored in relation to where the world is going with respect to to the cannabis plant.
“In Uruguay all types of cannabis use are authorized, there is Canada that followed the same steps as Uruguay, in the United States many states have legalized the use of cannabis and there are projects in that sense in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. And in Argentina already The cannabis and hemp law came out at an industrial level and it should not surprise us that tomorrow we will have fields planted with hemp in Azul” he stressed and added: “The same is going to happen with medicinal cannabis, as now there are greenhouses to grow vegetables, people are going to grow their cannabis for medicinal use.
Likewise, Murguiarte shared the idea of the collapse of the demonization that was known to be done to that ancient plant and said: “I think it is also part of the tail end of the failure of the fight against drugs. Because the word marijuana began to be replaced by medical cannabis and things began to change a lot. Organizations like Mama Cultiva began to clarify that they did not want to legalize the drug, but rather they want to make oil to treat their children and help them cope with their illness.”
“People today when they hear about medical cannabis think and see medicine, cancer patients recognize that the oil helped them sleep after chemo or radiation treatment. There is no negative press here, when a person who does not he can take more Diclofenac because his body is broken, he takes cannabis oil and his pain calms down, that shows that there is no need to deify the plant because the results speak for themselves,” he stressed.
At the end of the interview given to this newspaper, the activists for medicinal cannabis spoke about the projects and activities they have on the agenda and assured that the idea is to be able to start offering monthly workshops on different types of cultivation: “For people for those just starting to grow, for intermediate and advanced growers, as well as extraction workshops so that when people have their flower harvest, they know how to extract cannabinoids and can make their oil.”
At this point they also affirmed that if everything prospers, Reprocann would allow them to form an NGO and thus be able to cultivate in solidarity for patients who cannot do so and provide them and the Pintos Hospital with quality flowers, oils, creams or tinctures: “Hopefully we can reach that and the people who need it with a quality oil with chromatography done and with a standardized culture.”
Azuleños growers or users of medical cannabis who want to approach or participate in the civil association can do so through the social networks F/Ig: accmazul or by email [email protected] or by phone at 15529352.