We spoke to Carolina Gaillard, the MP who has vowed to “plant no more prisoners.”

Note by Ulises Román Rodríguez, originally published in El Planteo. More articles by El Planteo in High Times in Spanish.

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Dawn of a hectic day in Paraná. After watching a movie at the Entre Ríos International Film Festival and giving the tit to Felipe, new National Assemblyman Carolina Gaillard sits down alone for a while to talk to El Planteo.

just a few days ago When she was sworn in as a member of the Frente de Todos with a mandate until 2025, she did so with a message related to her political agenda that caused a stir in the media.

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“For the free, just and sovereign fatherland that our imprisoned and missing comrades dreamed of. For my entreriano city. For a state that takes care of the users and accompanies them and does not punish and criminalize them. No more prisoners to plant. Yes I swear!”

— What needs to be done so that prisoners no longer have to be planted?

—The first thing that needs to be done urgently is an action protocol for cases of people detained or imprisoned for medicinal cultivation, and second, It is very urgent that we decriminalize it. This will be a more lenient law that will give anyone jailed for planting the benefit of being released.

With these slogans as a banner, the Entre Ríos MP reiterated her fight for cannabis legalization, which began in 2016, on Eid Day.

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“I accepted in December 2013 and was totally unaware of the issue. Until the mothers came to ask the legislature to pass a law that would change the drug law because they had a prison sentence of 4 to 15 years for those who cultivated and they cultivated to make oil for their children who had refractory epilepsy,” says Gaillard.

As President of the Health Commission, it occurred to her that it was important to clarify the issue and lead the debate in order to amend Narcotics Act #23,737.

loopholes

It must be taken into account that the macrismo ruled and that Patricia Bullrich was security minister, so the ruling party had no intention of going in that direction. Then a law was passed declaring cannabis research interesting.

“It’s a law that’s very research focused, but it has cool things like it applies to whatever pathologies the doctor prescribes and/or what’s in the regulation. So if the regulation was restrictive, the doctor could broaden the view and if it prescribed otherwise, it was worth what the law said and not the regulations,” he explains.

Carolina Gaillard and Valeria Salech, Founder and President of Mama Cultiva Argentina

Somehow, this whole journey, with several twists and turns in the middle, paved the way for the creation of REPROCANN: the registry of breeders where everyone who uses medicinal cannabis registers and legally accesses it.

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—Despite REPROCANN, there are still people going to jail for planting, and you spelled it out in the oath. What’s wrong?

—The challenge is to train the security forces as they still ambush people who are registered with REPROCANN. Therefore We need clear protocols of action that if it is a medical use it is not a criminal offense because it is an authorized use.

– In your opinion, how should work be done in this sense?

– Propose legislation allowing the cultivation, marketing, export and production of all cannabis products, their derivatives and hemp. All of this is not allowed today because the law is limited to experimental cultivation, which is why it is important to authorize commercialization, create an agency that regulates everything and give a large stake to the producer cooperatives that will produce products.

-While it shouldn’t be anticipated, can you believe that the next step is to decriminalize personal consumption?

– I believe that we must take what the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice said many years ago and that the state must be present to accompany, to nurture and not to criminalize. So it seems to me that this is urgent that we must do it because it will be the way for the prosecutors, the police and the judiciary to stop considering it a crime to grow a plant or to carry out a personal act like the consumption of marijuana, which harms no one. And if you think about it We live in a medicalized society that abuses psychotropic drugs and has legalized alcohol and tobacco. For this reason, it is time to move forward with legislation that better suits the 21st century and societal needs.

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The opening of a ‘semi prudish’ girl

Ana Carolina Gaillard grew up in General Campos, a town of 5,000 in Entre Ríos province, in a non-marijuana Catholic family.

“I had never smoked marijuana and had no prior relationship with cannabis. I’m half petty. Smoking more than one cigarette and drinking beer, no. And when I smoked, I got sick, I got dizzy, I did it with friends for social reasons and I didn’t like it,” he says of his cannabis experience.

The day mothers from Mama Cultiva and other groups arrived to express their desire for cannabis legalization, their vision of the plant changed.

“We as legislators are responsible for ensuring that there are prisoners who need to be planted. Then I think we need to address this demand urgently, it is a crime to kill someone to be violent, it is not a crime to grow a plant much less a plant that relieves pain.”says the entrerriana deputy.

Who will run the business?

When one thinks of the business that the legalization of marijuana will generate, the question arises as to whose hands will lie the commercialization of the plant and its derivatives.

“The participation of the social economy is central, We don’t want the business to be for two or three people or big companies that they can present themselves and have the licenses, we believe in cooperative because Entre Ríos is a cooperative province,” says Gaillard.

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Lawmakers claim that in this way “fair prices are achieved and those who know most about cannabis are the breeders who have been working with the plant for years, so all this empirical knowledge has to be evaluated by the state”.

—What is the state of the law adopted in Entre Ríos?

—We have a law that adheres to 27,350, but we also have a cannabis regulation law that states that it will always uphold user rights as principles. It is a law with a legal perspective. It is a law that states that the provincial government must approve production licenses for cooperatives, mutual societies or state-owned companies. It’s a law that was drafted with civil society organizations, a whole group of APAC and other organizations in the province. It’s a very progressive piece of legislation in terms of regulation. As for the provincial laws, I think the best is that of Entre Ríos.