Cannabis and Ecuador

It appears that, towards the end of 2020, many South American nations took serious steps to promote industrial hemp and medical cannabis. There was serious political action in terms of streamlining the process of creating hemp and medical cannabis industries in these countries. Six years after Uruguay legalized cannabis for recreational purposes, most South American governments recognized the economic benefits of partial legalization. Uruguay was cultivating and exporting cannabis to Canada as medical cannabis, and Canada was exporting medical cannabis to Europe and Oceania. The US had legalized industrial hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill and 38 US states had legalized medical cannabis. Mexico was on the brink of cannabis legalization for recreational use. Argentina, Brazil and Colombia had kickstarted their medical cannabis markets through acts of legislation. It was probably widely recognized through South America that the Germans, Australians and Americans had started to reject their own synthetic pharmaceutical medicines and were switching to cannabis as medicine to treat a host of illnesses and to replace an array of expensive and harmful synthetic pharmaceutical drugs. In terms of industry, industrial hemp was making serious inroads into areas dominated by the petrochemical and fossil fuel industry - such as plastics, construction, chemical pesticides and fertilizers, medical equipment, fabrics and textiles, biofuels, etc. - slowly eating into these markets. The US, China and France had emerged as the leading producers of hemp for industrial purposes, exporting their product world-wide, even as hemp found increasing uses in not just the above-mentioned areas, but also in food, beverages, wellness, animal feed, etc.

This shift in global momentum towards cannabis, even though it was in forms that benefitted the elites -medical and industrial - was sufficient to frighten the synthetic pharmaceutical, fossil fuel and medical industry. From industrial and medical cannabis, recreational cannabis was only a step away. With recreational cannabis, huge masses of the global population that was dependent on these industries, besides alcohol and tobacco, would move away for good. The hold that the elites of the world had on the masses of people would be loosened and the lower classes could very well create a social revolution upending the class order of the world. To prevent this, the fake pandemic Covid was unleashed on the world at the end of 2020. It worked in terms of significantly boosting the wealth of the synthetic pharmaceutical and fossil fuel industries while almost completely stalling efforts across nations to move towards cannabis for medicine, industry and intoxicant. 

All this is mirrored in the two articles that I have come across regarding Ecuador's cannabis initiatives in the recent past. One is a report by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) stating that Ecuador's government was streamlining processes for industrial and medical cannabis. It reported in November 2020 that 'After five years of negotiations, Ecuador continues the process to approve the production of hemp for industrial and medicinal purposes. The Ministry of Agriculture is currently developing the regulations for planting. The Ministry of Health is modifying their regulations to allow the use and consumption of hemp and hemp products'. Reuters reported in August 2021, as the fake Covid pandemic was dying out that 'Declining sales spurred by the coronavirus outbreak dealt a heavy blow to Ecuador's flower sector, one of the Andean nation's traditional export industries, leaving farms cutting output or seeking to reinvent themselves. The Boutique Flowers farm in Tabacundo, an hour north of the capital Quito, has built cannabis greenhouses to take advantage of recent legal reforms that allow for cultivation of the plant - even though marijuana remains illegal. Marijuana contains higher levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - the cannabinoid that causes a high - than hemp. Ecuadorean law requires that cannabis have less than 1% THC.' It appears that this is where things more or less stand with Ecuador.

Ecuador must make up for lost time by not just accelerating its industrial hemp and medical cannabis initiatives, it must also bring about complete legalization of cannabis at the earliest. This is because, as I stated earlier, industrial hemp and medical cannabis primarily benefit only the elites of society barring a few cultivators that have license to cultivate medical cannabis or industrial hemp. For cannabis to benefit society. as a whole, its legalization for recreational purposes is essential. Only then can the complete range of benefits from cannabis be availed. delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the most medicinal compound in the cannabis plant. The banning of high-THC cannabis is not based on any scientific rationale. The main purpose of keeping high-THC cannabis banned, and for keeping recreational cannabis banned, is so that cannabis does not reach the majority of the people, the sections of society who need it the most - the poor, the indigenous communities, the working classes, the minorities, women, the elderly and the sick. Through this, the elites ensure that these sections of society remain dependent on alcohol, tobacco, opioids, synthetic pharmaceutical medicines and the illegal drugs - heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, synthetic cannabinoids, novel psychotropic substances (NPS), etc. All this vastly benefits the power structure that keeps cannabis prohibited.

Cannabis legalization will enable the world to move away from the unsustainable industries that destroy the planet and push the world to the brink of climate disaster. But the current power structure in most nations is designed to benefit the elite classes opposed to cannabis. The power structure's enabling elements are: politicians, the medical industry, religious orthodoxy, cannabis prohibition groups, the media, law enforcement and drug enforcement, the armed forces, to name a few. The increasing awareness that almost all anti-cannabis propaganda is false, created by selfish interests, is one of the key factors. Growing scientific information is debunking all the myths that kept cannabis prohibited globally for nearly a century now. Some of these myths are: cannabis causes insanity; cannabis is addictive and harmful; cannabis is more harmful than alcohol, opium and tobacco; cannabis is used by criminals and causes crime; cannabis is used by the lowest classes and castes of society; women who use cannabis are prostitutes; cannabis legalization will destroy the youth; and so on. Most of these myths were debunked more than 150 years ago itself, by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1894-95 set up by the British colonial rulers of India in order to prohibit cannabis and promote their alcohol, opium, tobacco and western medicine. But that did not stop the world from still going ahead and prohibiting cannabis, since the elites of the world who control global drug policy had amassed great wealth and power through the sale of their preferred drugs - alcohol, opium and tobacco - and had also grown vastly rich in the industries that thrived in the absence of cannabis, namely the petrochemical industry, the synthetic pharmaceutical industry, the petrochemical-based fertilizer and pesticides industry, the fossil-fuel based construction industry, the petrochemical-based non-biodegradable plastics industry, the synthetic fabric and cotton industry, the timber-based paper industry, and so on...

In December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted Schedule IV category of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It does, however, still remain in Schedule I, which is the least restrictive. This one move by the UN itself should be sufficient to bring about the recreational legalization of cannabis in every nation and an overhaul of national drug laws. Morocco, in recent times, has legalized cannabis cultivation for export purposes but keeps it illegal for use by the local population. In 2024, Germany and South Africa legalized cannabis for recreational purposes, joining Canada, Uruguay, Malta and Luxembourg. In the US, 24 states have legalized cannabis for recreational use (at the time of writing). The US cannabis industry is projected to have a $100 billion footprint in 2025 despite it being illegal at the federal level. Canada's legal cannabis market overtook the black market within two years of legalization. Germany and Canada cited reduction in crime and the protection of the youth as primary reasons for legalizing cannabis. While South America's cannabis legalization will cater mainly to the markets within the continent and North America, the Middle East and Africa's cannabis legalization will cater to European markets besides local markets. 

Only when Ecuador fully legalizes cannabis for all purposes, including high-THC cannabis, will the country benefit from the powers of the awesome plant, and its people and nature enjoy the well-being that comes through completely embracing the cannabis plant...

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'After five years of negotiations, Ecuador continues the process to approve the production of hemp for industrial and medicinal purposes. The Ministry of Agriculture is currently developing the regulations for planting. The Ministry of Health is modifying their regulations to allow the use and consumption of hemp and hemp products'

https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/ecuador-industrial-hemp-report

'Declining sales spurred by the coronavirus outbreak dealt a heavy blow to Ecuador's flower sector, one of the Andean nation's traditional export industries, leaving farms cutting output or seeking to reinvent themselves.

The Boutique Flowers farm in Tabacundo, an hour north of the capital Quito, has built cannabis greenhouses to take advantage of recent legal reforms that allow for cultivation of the plant - even though marijuana remains illegal.

Marijuana contains higher levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - the cannabinoid that causes a high - than hemp. Ecuadorean law requires that cannabis have less than 1% THC.'

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ecuadors-flower-industry-shifts-toward-hemp-rose-sales-wither-2021-07-29/

Cannabis and Costa Rica

 In October 2020, Hemp Industry Daily reported that 'Costa Rican lawmakers have put forward a draft law to legalize the cultivation, production and sale of industrial hemp and medicinal marijuana. The proposal was published last month after it was approved by lawmakers on the Environment Commission of the Legislative Assembly, online news outlet El Mundo CR reported. The draft law comes after the launch of a project last year by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Trade to examine the commercial benefits of developing the hemp industry, according to an analysis from Valeria Grant, an associate at the Central American law firm Arias.'

In January 2021, Q Costa Rica reported that 'The call to action comes from legislators of various political factions, including the ruling party, who believe that the opportunity to create a new industry in the country that generates investment and employment should be seized.'

In November 2021, Reuters reported that 'Costa Rica's Congress on Tuesday approved the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes, despite opposition from conservative groups and President Carlos Alvarado who still needs to put his stamp of approval on the law. The law allows for the production and processing of cannabis, but does not regulate its recreational use.'

In August 2023, Tico Times reported that 'After several months on hold, the Environmental Commission of the Legislative Assembly will resume discussions this week on the bill to legalize recreational marijuana in the Costa Rica. The proposal was rejected by the majority of the commission members, which includes three from the PLN and two from the New Republic parties. This was confirmed by Manuel Morales, a member of the ruling party. “There are five votes against. We have already prepared the minority report to be presented to the Plenary. Some of the substitute text includes their suggestions, but they are going to vote against it,” he added. Four members of the commission support the initiative, so they will present it to the Plenary with a minority report, hoping it can progress and be approved. “When it reaches the Plenary, I believe it can be approved. It may be tight, but I think some members of the National Liberation party will support it,” Morales stated.'

In the interim between these events, due to lack of further information with me, I can only assume that the following happened: Costa Rica now has a legalized medical cannabis industry; cannabis is being cultivated as industrial hemp, though I do not know for what industrial applications it is being used; the benefits of medical cannabis has encouraged some sections of Costa Rican society to push for legalization of adult recreational cannabis usage.

The steps taken by Costa Rica are the logical steps that most nations are taking in their progress towards cannabis liberation and maturity in the social relationship with cannabis. The increasing awareness that almost all anti-cannabis propaganda is false, created by selfish interests, is one of the key factors. Growing scientific information is debunking all the myths that kept cannabis prohibited globally for nearly a century now. Some of these myths are: cannabis causes insanity; cannabis is addictive and harmful; cannabis is more harmful than alcohol, opium and tobacco; cannabis is used by criminals and causes crime; cannabis is used by the lowest classes and castes of society; women who use cannabis are prostitutes; cannabis legalization will destroy the youth; and so on. Most of these myths were debunked more than 150 years ago itself, by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1894-95 set up by the British colonial rulers of India in order to prohibit cannabis and promote their alcohol, opium, tobacco and western medicine. But that did not stop the world from still going ahead and prohibiting cannabis, since the elites of the world who control global drug policy had amassed great wealth and power through the sale of their preferred drugs - alcohol, opium and tobacco - and had also grown vastly rich in the industries that thrived in the absence of cannabis, namely the petrochemical industry, the synthetic pharmaceutical industry, the petrochemical-based fertilizer and pesticides industry, the fossil-fuel based construction industry, the petrochemical-based non-biodegradable plastics industry, the synthetic fabric and cotton industry, the timber-based paper industry, and so on. 

We see the world over that cannabis prohibition is essentially the caste and class system being played out where the ruling elites oppress the lower classes and castes - the working classes, the minorities, the indigenous communities - and the poorest sections of society so as to keep them in shackles and make them work for the ruling elites. The ruling elites access cannabis as medical cannabis or procure it from the black market. The oppressed classes can do neither. The medical industry ensures that only the elites can access medical cannabis. Law enforcement and drug enforcement ensure that only the elites can afford and access cannabis from the black market. If the lower classes and castes grow or access cannabis, they are swiftly punished by the power structure of the elites which includes politicians, the medical industry, religious orthodoxy, cannabis prohibition groups, the media, law enforcement and drug enforcement. It is this global class and caste system that enabled the elites to prohibit cannabis in the first place. It is ironic that the 1961 Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs that all nations of the world are signatories to and whose national drug laws closely adhere to, does not prohibit cannabis for industrial purposes. Despite this, almost no nation pursued cannabis for industrial purposes in the 20th century and only a handful of nations - China, the US, France, to name a few - have seriously adopted industrial cannabis in the 21st century. This shows the power of the industries opposed to cannabis that the elites thrive on and use to control the world.

Costa Rica may well have started the adoption of industrial cannabis seeing the US legalize it through the 2018 Farm Bill. It may have ventured into medical cannabis seeing the traction for it in South America, especially in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Uruguay legalized cannabis for recreational purposes in 2014 and has since then become a cultivation outsourcing destination for various medical cannabis companies, mainly from Canada which cannot grow good quality cannabis at the large scale it requires to meet its internal and export requirements. This venture of Costa Rica into medical cannabis appears to be more to meet the cannabis needs of its own ruling elites and to export medical cannabis to Canada, Europe, Brazil, Argentina and Australia for the use of the elites there. The recent push for legalization of recreational cannabis may have been the result of the success of the US states that have done it so far and the economic benefits that these US states are seeing as a result of it.

We see that the re-emergence of a medicinal herb that has been used for thousands of years across Asia, Africa and the Americas is being met with resistance from the conservatives in Costa Rican society. The conservatives, essentially another name for the ruling elites, have been resisting every step of the way even as society has been devastated with addiction to alcohol, opioids, synthetic prescription pharmaceuticals, methamphetamine, fentanyl, etc.

The reasons why countries like Canada, Germany, South Africa and Uruguay legalized cannabis for recreational purposes were: improving public health; shrinking the black market for drugs; reducing crime; protecting the youth, etc. All these are benefits that are applicable to every single nation in the world. In the US, the legalization of recreational cannabis in 24 states (at the time of writing) has enabled job creation; increased revenues; reduced harms from synthetic drugs; increased tourism and so on.

The benefits of legalizing cannabis completely are far reaching, especially in a world that is on the brink of human-induced climate disaster mainly due to the actions of the industries opposed to cannabis. For Costa Rica, completely legalizing cannabis will have medical, social, environmental, spiritual, economic and business benefits that will enable it to adopt the path of sustainable existence. This is not a nice-to-have situation but a most critical necessity if Costa Rican society is to survive in a healthy fashion in the coming decades. It is a measure that will ensure the well-being of youth, the elderly, women, the sick, the working classes and the poorest classes of society. To ignore complete legalization of cannabis is to put Costa Rica's future in peril.

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After several months on hold, the Environmental Commission of the Legislative Assembly will resume discussions this week on the bill to legalize recreational marijuana in the Costa Rica.

The proposal was rejected by the majority of the commission members, which includes three from the PLN and two from the New Republic parties. This was confirmed by Manuel Morales, a member of the ruling party.

“There are five votes against. We have already prepared the minority report to be presented to the Plenary. Some of the substitute text includes their suggestions, but they are going to vote against it,” he added.

Four members of the commission support the initiative, so they will present it to the Plenary with a minority report, hoping it can progress and be approved. “When it reaches the Plenary, I believe it can be approved. It may be tight, but I think some members of the National Liberation party will support it,” Morales stated.

https://ticotimes.net/2023/08/22/costa-rica-lawmakers-divided-on-revised-recreational-marijuana-bill

'Costa Rica's Congress on Tuesday approved the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes, despite opposition from conservative groups and President Carlos Alvarado who still needs to put his stamp of approval on the law.

The law allows for the production and processing of cannabis, but does not regulate its recreational use.'

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/costa-rica-congress-approves-legalization-marijuana-medicinal-use-2021-10-20/

https://www.elmundo.cr/costa-rica/diputados-discutiran-el-proximo-martes-proyecto-de-legalizacion-del-canamo-y-cannabis-con-fines-medicinales/

'The call to action comes from legislators of various political factions, including the ruling party, who believe that the opportunity to create a new industry in the country that generates investment and employment should be seized.'

https://qcostarica.com/political-pressure-grows-for-medical-marijuana-and-hemp/

'Costa Rican lawmakers have put forward a draft law to legalize the cultivation, production and sale of industrial hemp and medicinal marijuana.

The proposal was published last month after it was approved by lawmakers on the Environment Commission of the Legislative Assembly, online news outlet El Mundo CR reported.

The draft law comes after the launch of a project last year by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Trade to examine the commercial benefits of developing the hemp industry, according to an analysis from Valeria Grant, an associate at the Central American law firm Arias.'

https://hempindustrydaily.com/costa-rican-lawmakers-considering-hemp-cultivation-processing/

Cannabis and Chile

 

Chile appears to have a medical cannabis market with sales of cannabidiol (CBD) based products. This is now the case in many countries around the world, after CBD was removed from scheduled lists by the UN, I think, around the same time that it rescheduled cannabis from its most restrictive Schedule IV lists to its least restrictive Schedule I list in December 2020 based on the recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the most serious side effects of cannabis are laughter and talkativeness. 

There appear to be 'counterfeit' CBD products available in Chile, prompting its Public Health Institute to warn the public against these products. 'Counterfeit' here appears to mean those products that have not been endorsed by the Public Health Institute. What one sees here is all the drama that comes along with trying to make a natural herb like cannabis into a pharmaceutical product like the junk that is synthesized in laboratories and sold to the public as 'medicine'. The Institute acknowledges that CBD has therapeutic properties. It probably is trying to say that unregistered products may contain delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the most therapeutic compound in the cannabis plant. 

This is a typical example of how the medical industry and pharmaceutical industry are trying to appropriate and profit from a natural herb that has been used by countless humans for thousands of years across the world. By positioning cannabis as a pharmaceutical product, these industries hope to milk the elite classes of society into contributing to their growing wealth and scare the public that smoking natural cannabis is dangerous. Cannabis is, first and foremost, the herb of the poorest classes of society, the indigenous communities and the working classes. It was first banned by the elites of the world in order to peddle their opium, tobacco, alcohol and synthetic pharmaceutical medicines. The world's poor ended up in prison when they tried to access cannabis, while the elites procured their cannabis from the black market while constantly opposing its legalization stating that it was harmful and addictive. As overwhelming scientific proof of the medical qualities of cannabis emerged and flooded the world, forcing the WHO and the UN to revise their stands on cannabis, the elites of the world decided that their stand on complete prohibition of cannabis was scientifically untenable and so decided that the next best thing was to try and control it as a pharmaceutical medicine. After decades of crushing the global systems of natural medicine that kept humans healthy for thousands of years and creating systems that are completely aligned to the synthetic pharmaceutical drugs that are synthesized in labs, the elites of the world are now trying to retrofit the natural herb cannabis into their regulatory systems for synthetic medicines. Through this, they hope to package cannabis as a pharmaceutical medicine that pharma companies have created and sell it to the elites at costs that no common man can afford and with regulations that ensure that nobody from the poorest classes can access it. By this, the elites of the world hope to profit from the very cannabis that they prohibited, destroyed and imprisoned countless people from the depressed classes for. By endorsing cannabis as pharmaceutical medicine, the elites hope to add a price tag to it that shows their value add to the natural herb. 

So, if the Public Health Institute of Chile is really concerned about public health, what it would do is push the government to legalize the natural herb cannabis completely so that it can be grown in the country as a commodity at scales that mean that enough cannabis is cultivated to enable the poorest person in Chile to access and afford it. The amount of regulatory oversight that natural cannabis requires is about the same amount of oversight that any other cultivated crop in Chile requires. While neighbours Uruguay legalized cannabis for adult recreational purposes in 2014, Chile, like most other South American countries, is completely in the hands of the ruling elites that get rich from the industries opposed to cannabis. These industries contaminate air, water and land, destroy large swathes of natural green cover and then peddle their tobacco, alcohol, synthetic pharmaceutical drugs and illegal synthetic drugs like heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. All the money that is generated by these industries flows into the pockets of the elites in industry and the politicians while entities like the Public Health Institute make statements that fool the public into thinking that they exist for the good of the people.

Legalizing cannabis completely, so that natural cannabis - with its natural balance of cannabinoids, including THC and CBD - is available for the people should be the focus of the government. Through this, not only will public health benefit greatly, but there will be immense benefits to the overall economy, business and the environment. The use of cannabis for a diverse range of sustainable industries such as biofuels, biodegradable plastics, construction, natural medicine, natural intoxicant, fabrics, footwear, food, beverages, wellness, tourism, research, automobile parts, animal feed, paper and packaging and so on will set Chile on a path of sustainable economics that can help counter the damage caused by the synthetic pharmaceutical industry, the petrochemical industry, the chemical pesticide and fertilizer industry, the mining industry, the paper and packaging industry, the alcohol industry, the tobacco industry, the opioid industry, the medical industry, and so on, that have enabled the elites in Chile to amass wealth, subjugate the poor and greatly increase the gap between the rich and the poor. Legalizing cannabis completely will protect the public from dangerous synthetic drugs like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, etc. It will shrink the black market that peddles these illegal and dangerous synthetic drugs working in collusion with law enforcement, drug enforcement and politicians. It will give the elderly, the sick, women, indigenous communities, the poor and the youth a safe medicine and intoxicant that will improve their health. It will protect the youth from getting sucked into organized crime after being lured in, using cannabis and the dangerous synthetic drugs, by the criminals who operate the black market. It will reduce violent crime, homicides and domestic violence that are induced by alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine. It will rejuvenate the soil, sequester carbon, provide nutrition for animals, birds and insects and help in the cross-pollination of natural flora. The natural climatic conditions of Chile will enable it to grow high quality cannabis at scales that ensure that there is not just enough cannabis for the entire population - especially the poorest of the poor and the indigenous communities - but also ensure that there is surplus cannabis that can be exported to North America, Europe and Oceania where the elites have realized that cannabis is probably the safest, most effective medicine and intoxicant in the world after decades of opposing it. In these elite countries now, the people seek cannabis but cannot grow it due to the adverse climatic conditions there. Therefore, their only option is to import it from the countries that have been traditional cannabis cultivating and consuming countries like those in South America, Africa and Asia. The large scale cultivation of cannabis in Chile will reduce the smuggling inwards of cannabis from neighbouring countries, meaning that law and drug enforcement can focus on addressing violent crimes and financial crimes. Legalizing cannabis will release all the people in prison or facing trial for cannabis, thus freeing up the judiciary to address real crimes. Some of these are the reasons why Uruguay, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Malta, Luxembourg and 24 out of 50 US states (at the time of writing) have legalized cannabis for recreational use so far.

Legalizing cannabis completely is what is required today, not frivolous attempts at portraying to the people that the government is concerned about public health. Legalizing cannabis will, of course, be a significant setback for the elites who control and oppress the people through the current governments and industries. Does the government of Chile have the spine to legalize cannabis completely or will it continue with the posturing that most governments the world over do who function for their own selfish interests betraying the trust that the people bestowed on them? The best way to avoid counterfeiting is to go natural because nature cannot be counterfeited, unlike the synthetics that humans create...

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'“Any product” with CBD “that currently does not have a health registration granted by this Institute is a counterfeit pharmaceutical product and its quality, safety and efficacy cannot be guaranteed to the population,” Juan Roldán of the Public Health Institute of Chile said in the press release.

According to the health authority, after a “rigorous” evaluation of CBD, the institute determined that because of its therapeutic properties – analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant are mentioned – products with the active ingredient must obtain a premarketing sanitary registration like any other medicine.'

https://mjbizdaily.com/chile-health-authority-warns-of-counterfeit-cannabis-medicines/

'Methamphetamine trafficked from Canada has been reported in the United States, South America (Chile), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) and a few countries in Europe (Iceland and Latvia).' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

Cannabis and Bolivia

In a US White House media brief in September 2021, it was stated that 'The United States is committed to working together with the countries of the Western Hemisphere as neighbors and partners to meet our shared challenges of drug trafficking and use. My Administration will seek to expand cooperation with key partners, such as Mexico and Colombia, to shape a collective and comprehensive response and expand efforts to address the production and trafficking of dangerous synthetic drugs that are responsible for many of our overdose deaths, particularly fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and methamphetamine. In Mexico, we must continue to work together to intensify efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and their networks, increase prosecutions of criminal leaders and facilitators, and strengthen efforts to seize illicit assets. In Bolivia, I encourage the government to take additional steps to safeguard the country’s licit coca markets from criminal exploitation and reduce illicit coca cultivation that continues to exceed legal limits under Bolivia’s domestic laws for medicinal and traditional use. In addition, the United States will look to expand cooperation with China, India, and other chemical source countries in order to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs and their precursor chemicals.'

This statement was made by a country that is the world's largest market for cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine and the country most responsible for global cannabis prohibition today. When the obvious approach to reduce cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine trafficking and use is to legalize cannabis so that it is available to the people in place of these dangerous drugs that thrive in its absence, the US makes regular statements of this nature to portray itself as a victim of the global drug crisis that it was largely responsible for creating. 

The apparent concern to protect Bolivia's legal cultivation of coca appears to stem from the fact that the elites of the US love cocaine and will do all they can to obtain it from legal sources in Bolivia or illegal sources in Colombia and Mexico. US President Joe Biden's real concern about the global drug menace from opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine can be gauged from the fact that he has pardoned his cocaine associated son Hunter facing felony charges while ignoring the hundreds of thousands of cannabis users who are imprisoned or face trial for using a herb that has been completely legalized in 24 states, legalized for medical use in 38 states, and enjoys overwhelming support for legalization among the American public. Successive US governments have stalled all efforts to legalize cannabis federally and do all they can to ensure that it is not legalized in South American nations like Bolivia. Bolivia is another of the South American countries that the US has used to outsource the production of the drugs of choice of the American elites - heroin and cocaine. It appears that in countries like Colombia and Mexico, the US works with the drug cartels to ensure production and supply of these drugs, while in Bolivia the US works with the Bolivian government itself. 

Bolivia has a history of being subservient to the mining, petrochemical and synthetic drug industries that have made the elites of both Bolivia and the US rich and the working classes and indigenous communities of Bolivia even more poor. The revolutionary Che Guevara focused some of his attention on trying to liberate the people of Bolivia from the elites who worked hand in hand with the US. Even as Uruguay - the first nation in the world to legalize cannabis for adult use in 2014 since its global prohibition - took the bold step, almost all other South American countries continue to operate under the influence of the US. 

For Bolivia to work as a free and independent nation, it must legalize cannabis for all purposes so that it is available to the people who need it the most - the poorest classes, the indigenous communities and the working classes. Legalized cannabis for all purposes can enable Bolivia to reach economic sustainability, provide universal health care, fight the menace of legal and illegal synthetic pharmaceutical medicines, besides creating a number of cannabis-related industries that heal the nation and combat environmental destruction. If sufficient cannabis is produced in Bolivia, it can meet the local needs of the people as well as be available for export to nations like the US and other countries that cannot grow sufficient cannabis to meet their needs. Instead of being an outsourcing destination for the US' cocaine needs, it is much better for Bolivia to be an independent nation using cannabis as its basis for economic growth and independence. Countries like Brazil and Argentina are starting to show signs of moving towards cannabis legalization. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled a few years ago that cannabis prohibition violates an individual's fundamental rights. All these South American nations are blocked in their progress to economic development through cannabis legalization by the US, working hand in hand with local politicians to ensure that the supply of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to the ruling upper classes in the US and these South American nations remains unaffected. The fact that a decade has passed since Uruguay legalized cannabis for adult use and no other South American nation has followed shows the extent of control the US exercises over the South American nations even today.

The Bolivian flag bears the three colors of cannabis - red, gold and green - but its governments appear to be more inclined to the white color of powdered cocaine that fuels American efforts to keep cannabis prohibited globally in order to ensure the supremacy of the ruling and elite classes of every nation. The resulting destruction of the planet and suffering of the inhabitants of this earth are not matters that concern these entities too much...

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'The United States is committed to working together with the countries of the Western Hemisphere as neighbors and partners to meet our shared challenges of drug trafficking and use. My Administration will seek to expand cooperation with key partners, such as Mexico and Colombia, to shape a collective and comprehensive response and expand efforts to address the production and trafficking of dangerous synthetic drugs that are responsible for many of our overdose deaths, particularly fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and methamphetamine. In Mexico, we must continue to work together to intensify efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and their networks, increase prosecutions of criminal leaders and facilitators, and strengthen efforts to seize illicit assets. In Bolivia, I encourage the government to take additional steps to safeguard the country’s licit coca markets from criminal exploitation and reduce illicit coca cultivation that continues to exceed legal limits under Bolivia’s domestic laws for medicinal and traditional use. In addition, the United States will look to expand cooperation with China, India, and other chemical source countries in order to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs and their precursor chemicals. '

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/09/15/a-memorandum-for-the-secretary-of-state-on-presidential-determination-on-major-drug-transit-or-major-illicit-drug-producing-countries-for-fiscal-year-2022/

Cannabis and Bermuda

Bermuda appears to be more concerned about what its colonial master Britain thinks rather than what is good for itself. Licensed cannabis production related legislation faced opposition in 2021 with the reasons being cited as Britain would be offended. Licensed cannabis production went apparently went against Britain's international obligations. The Royal Gazette reported that 'The Premier said last night Bermuda’s relationship with the UK would suffer serious damage if a law to license cannabis production failed to get Royal Assent. David Burt said there were indications that the Governor would be unable to give assent to legislation that contravened Britain’s international obligations.'

Obligations is a strange word. Britain is largely responsible for global cannabis prohibition which it started in Burma (today's Myanmar) and then enforced in India, the land of ganja. Using incorrect statistics from India of cannabis and its alleged link to insanity, Britain spread the message of cannabis prohibition to all its colonies. Britain's offspring - the US - took it a step further by creating the Marihuana Act in 1937. The US used its clout in the UN to include cannabis in the Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs in 1961 and make most nations signatory to the treaty. This treaty is what is commonly cited by nations who are unwilling to listen to the voices of their people when the people demand cannabis legalization for use as safe intoxicant, valuable medicine and sustainable means of income and livelihood. 

The reason why Britain and its allies pushed forward cannabis prohibition globally is so that they could sell their preferred drugs - opium, alcohol, tobacco and synthetic pharmaceutical medicine - and gain far greater revenue than they could if cannabis - the herb of the poorest classes, indigenous communities and the working classes - was available freely at little or no cost. Bermuda will do well to shake off its colonial legacy that threatens to further enslave its people through these harmful substitutes for cannabis. In the process, Bermuda will see vast improvements in public health, increase in sustainable livelihoods and income, boost to tourism and the possibility of including the precious cannabis to its bouquet of international export commodities if it is able to produce surplus cannabis.

Bermuda's flag still sports the British flag in addition to its own coat of arms showing the influence that Britain still has on a group of islands thousands of miles away that the British used for growing their tobacco. The local indigenous communities and black population who were brought in as slaves from Africa were used for cultivating tobacco in plantations. Today, Bermuda faces the direct impact of global warming and rising sea levels. The cultivation of cannabis and the shedding of British influences in its existence will mean that Bermuda is a free nation once again. Two other British colonies that had the British flag embedded in their national flag - Canada and South Africa - have both shed their colonial legacies by legalizing cannabis and removing the British emblem from their flags. It remains to be seen if and when Bermuda will do the same...

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'The Premier said last night Bermuda’s relationship with the UK would suffer serious damage if a law to license cannabis production failed to get Royal Assent.

David Burt said there were indications that the Governor would be unable to give assent to legislation that contravened Britain’s international obligations.'

https://www.royalgazette.com/politics/news/article/20210219/cannabis-legalisation-up-for-house-debate