Costa Rica – Costa Rica’s President, Carlos Alvarado, said Friday that the executive branch will present a proposal next week to “dissolve” the bill legalizing the use of medical cannabis and cannabis for industrial use in the country.
The counter-proposal will be sent to lawmakers, although the president has not confirmed whether he will do so by partial or total veto of the legal initiative approved last week in the legislature’s plenary session.
Alvarado stressed in statements to the media that he does not want this law to become a reality in the country, stressing that he shares lawmakers’ goal of providing a tool for Costa Rican health, generating an industry and economic revitalization. .
“I want it to be legal and to work, which is the most important thing,” the president said.
However, he noted, a series of observations arose around the version of the initiative approved in Congress, which generated the need for executive teams to review it in light of the international treaties Costa Rica signed on drug control, and “with other types of characteristics”.
Specifically, the Ministry of the Presidency announced Thursday evening that the medical cannabis law is being reviewed on the basis of these agreements.
Our goal is to propose a solution to Congress, so that it can become a law of the Republic. And I say this because, for the most part, the query that legislators submitted to the Constitutional Court was on a procedural issue, but there are many substantive issues,” Alvarado explained.
He added that if the government is to achieve health and economic recovery goals, “there must be legal certainty.”
The bill was approved in the second and final debate in the legislature on January 13 with 29 votes in favour, 10 against.
After the law is finally approved in Congress, the legislative decree is sent to the executive branch, where the president has a 10-day working period to decide whether to sign it or declare that he is vetoing the initiative.
That deadline will be Thursday next week, when Carlos Alvarado must finally announce whether he will sign the project and send it for publication in the official La Gaceta newspaper, or whether he will return it to Congress.
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