According to ReutersThe Supreme Court of Justice (STJ), which acts as Brazil’s highest court of appeal for unconstitutional matters, “accepted the ruling on whether companies and farmers can grow cannabis in the country, which could open the door to legal cultivation for medical and industrial purposes after a faltering Legislative efforts in recent years.
The case was brought by a biotechnology company called DNA Solucoes em Biotecnologia, which “defends the right to import cannabis seeds and plants with higher levels of cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD) and less of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive ingredient in the plant,” According to Reuters.
Reuters reported That the Court of Appeal’s decision “was announced on March 14 and established its jurisdiction in a precedent at the national level regarding the import of seeds and the cultivation of cannabis.”
This decision had immediate repercussions.
“Now, all pending cases related to licensing cannabis cultivation in the country will be frozen until STJ makes a final and binding decision,” according to the outlet. Brazil allows the sale and production of hemp products, but companies must import key ingredients. The court’s final ruling on cannabis, expected next year, could make it pioneer a topic that many in Brazil’s conservative-leaning Congress have rejected, such as the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling paving the way for same-sex marriage.
last summer, The Supreme Court of Justice ruled Patients in Brazil can 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 “cultivate cannabis for medical treatment, a decision likely to be enforced nationwide in similar cases,” The Associated Press reported at the time.
The court’s unanimous decision allowed the “three patients [to] Cultivation of cannabis and extraction of oil for use in pain relief.
The rhetoric against this possibility is ethical. It often has a religious character, based on dogmas, on false facts, and stigmas,” Judge Ruggiero Schicchi said in the ruling. “Let’s stop this prejudice, this morality that delays the development of this issue in legislation and so often confuses the minds of Brazilian judges.”
Medical cannabis is legal in Brazil, although it is limited. Recreational marijuana use is prohibited.
Marijuana legalization did not feature prominently in last year’s Brazilian presidential election, as candidates generally shied away from the issue.
The winner of that election, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, “doesn’t seem to have a very specific plan regarding cannabis specifically,” according to Benzinga, who noted that “it remains to be seen if said plan will respond to the claims of the cannabis community but if we follow His broader drug policy plan, it is safe to assume, will be more humane than that of his predecessor.”
Reuters He has more background information on the state’s weed policy:
Brazil has banned the cultivation of Cannabis sativa L., the plant that makes hemp and marijuana. Researchers and cannabis companies have argued that Brazil’s tropical climate is ideally suited to making it a leading global resource.”
The High Court of Justice’s decision this month to adjudicate the case indicates that the committee is ready to set a precedent on this issue.
Reuters He cited Brazilian lawyer Victor Miranda, who “said STJ’s decision to set a precedent in this matter was in line with Brazilian case law and gave no clear indication of how the court would ultimately award the merits of the case.”
