Court ruling could lead to cannabis cultivation in Brazil

According to Reuters, the Supreme Court (STJ), which serves as Brazil’s top court of appeal for non-constitutional matters, “agreed to rule on whether companies and farmers can grow cannabis in the country, which could open the door to legal cultivation for medicinal and marijuana use.” industrial uses after legislative efforts have stalled in recent years.”

The case was brought by a biotech company called DNA Solucoes em Biotecnologia, which is “arguing for the right to import seeds and produce cannabis with higher levels of cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD) and lower levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive compound plant plants,” according to Reuters.

Reuters reported that the appeals court’s decision “was released on March 14 and established its jurisdiction over a nationwide precedent regarding the importation of seeds and the planting of cannabis.”

And that decision had immediate repercussions.

“Now all pending cases regarding permission to grow cannabis in the country will be frozen until the STJ makes a final and binding decision,” the outlet reads. “Brazil allows the sale and production of cannabis products, but companies have to import key ingredients. The court’s final ruling on cannabis, expected within the next year, could make it a frontrunner on an issue scorned by many in Brazil’s conservative Congress, like the 2011 Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for the paves same-sex marriage.”

Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that patients in Brazil could grow their own cannabis for medical treatment.

In that decision, the five-judge panel ruled in favor of three patients who brought the case, authorizing them “to grow cannabis for medical treatment, a decision likely to be used in similar cases nationwide,” the Associated Press reported under the time.

The court’s unanimous decision left the “three patients [to] Grow cannabis and extract its oil for pain relief.”

“The discourse against this possibility is moralistic. It is often religious in character, based on dogma, false truths and stigmata,” Judge Rogério Schietti said in the decision. “Let’s stop this prejudice, this moralism that delays the development of this issue in the legislature and often clouds the minds of Brazilian judges.”

Medicinal cannabis is legal in Brazil, albeit limited. Recreational use of marijuana is prohibited.

Marijuana legalization didn’t feature prominently in Brazil’s presidential election last year, as candidates generally avoided the issue.

The winner of this election, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, “doesn’t seem to have a very concrete plan specifically related to cannabis,” said Benzinga, who noted that “it remains to be seen if this plan lives up to the claims made by the cannabis community; but if we stick to his broader drug policy plan, it can be expected to be more humane than that of his predecessor.”

Reuters has more background on the country’s weed policy:

“Brazil has banned the cultivation of Cannabis sativa L, the plant from which hemp and marijuana are made. Researchers and cannabis companies have argued that Brazil’s tropical climate is ideally suited to making it a leading global player.”

The Superior Court of Justice’s decision this month to rule on the case suggests the panel is poised to set a precedent on the matter.

Reuters quoted Brazilian lawyer Victor Miranda as saying “the STJ’s decision to set a precedent in this matter was consistent with Brazilian jurisprudence and gave no clear indication of how it would ultimately rule on the merits of the case.” .