Cannabis and Argentina

'Yes, the medicine has been used since time immemorial by American Indians from Canada to Brazil. They always knew that there was ‘medicine’ and ‘drugs.’ Medicine — Mother Nature makes with the help of photosynthesis, which is the sun. Drugs are made in a laboratory by a man. So there’s drugs and then there’s medicine. And my mom always knew about herbs for tea and ointment and all kinds of stuff.'

 - Carlos Santana

Argentina is the land of Che Guevara, Diego Maradona, Carlos Santana and Lionel Messi. What little I know about Argentina comes from what little knowledge I have about these iconic legends. Reading about Che Guevara in Jon Lee Anderson's A Revolutionary Life and Guevara's autobiographical Motorcycle Diaries, the impression I got of Argentina was that it was a society with a clear demarcation between the rich elites and the vast majority of people who formed the working classes. Argentina, like most South American countries, has been greatly exploited by the mining companies of the US who worked hand in hand with the local elites to exploit the land and the people and get rich. Guevara, traveling through the South American continent, as a medical student, saw the vast suffering that the lop-sided politics of the elites had wrecked on the people and the land. This experience fueled him to take up arms and become the most dreaded enemy of dictators and despots who ruled South American nations in partnership with the US. Diego Maradona moved to Naples to play for the club Napoli and brought great success to the club. His love for cocaine and his associations with the authorities and the Italian drug mafia, I believe, were vastly instrumental for his being banned from what he loved the most, playing football, after testing positive for ephedrine. This was also a possible fallout of his playing a large part in the victory of Argentina over Italy in the World Cup. Carlos Santana introduced me to the vibrant music and culture of Argentina through his fusion of indigenous music with rock. I was fortunate enough to see him perform when he toured my hometown, Bengaluru, in India a few years back. Santana's music is something I grew up listening to and it leaves me spellbound every time I listen to it to this day. 

South America became a cannabis world when the Asiatics crossed over through the land bridge connecting Asia with the Americas about 12,000 years ago. The societies that settled down throughout the Americas came to be referred to as Native Americans. These societies flourished until the advent of European colonizers in the 16th century. Cannabis, tobacco, peyote, ayahuasca and coca were the primary intoxicants, medicines and entheogens that the indigenous communities of South America used till the advent of the Europeans. Over time, opium and distilled alcohol that the white man found to be lucrative were introduced and the traditional medicinal intoxicants were banned and replaced. Opium was weaponized into heroin and coca into cocaine. The methods that the British used to convert nations from cannabis to opium is clearly evident in the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission's report of 1894-95. This report deals primarily with India, but it is obvious that the methods that they tested and fine-tuned in China and Burma were the same that Europeans used to remove cannabis from all countries that had a history and culture of cannabis consumption. The methods used to convert people from the harmless, medicinal, spiritual and intoxicating cannabis in the 19th century in India, the land of cannabis, were as follows: regulating and curbing the cultivation of cannabis; imposition of licenses, taxes, increasing prices and use of law enforcement; spreading of anti-cannabis myths such as - cannabis was addictive, cannabis caused insanity, only the lowest classes consumed cannabis, cannabis was against the religious sanctions, only criminals used cannabis, cannabis was more harmful than opium or alcohol, and so on. It was specifically the myth that cannabis caused insanity that probably had the most profound influence in global cannabis prohibition. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission found that there was no justification in cannabis prohibition. It stated that "Over and over again the statistics of Indian asylums have been referred to in official documents or scientific treatises not only in this country, but also in other countries where the use of these drugs has demanded attention. Other alleged effects of the drugs have attracted but little attention compared with their alleged connection with insanity."  In all the global efforts to prohibit cannabis, the British and their descendants, the Americans, were aided by the upper classes and castes of all nations who were willing to sell their own mothers for a slice of the European power pie. The use of cannabis, peyote, coca, ayahuasca, etc., was termed as pagan, even as large sections of society were converted to the king-priest-businessman hierarchical structures of class-based societies that the Europeans practiced. A majority of the indigenous communities were either decimated with war and disease or recruited to form the working classes that served the ruling elites.

In 2014, Uruguay became the first nation in the world to legalize adult recreational cannabis after it was globally prohibited by the Americans working in conjunction with the ruling elites of other nations. It is quite surprising that since Uruguay, no South American nation has legalized cannabis for adult recreational use in the past decade. This shows the dark shadow that the US casts over the entire South American continent, and the entire world. The US exploits South America for its oil, minerals, opium and cocaine. Recently, it has also started exploiting it as an outsourcing manufacturing destination for methamphetamine. Politicians of most South American countries work hand in hand with US politicians and together they work for the opioid, synthetic pharmaceutical, petrochemical, alcohol, tobacco, mining and construction industries that have laid the world to waste. The South American drug cartels that span Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have their tentacles in possibly every South American country, including Argentina. 

All the entities that exploit Argentina have a combined interest in keeping cannabis prohibited as it would drastically impact their businesses and profits. The elected governments of Argentina are strongly influenced by these entities, and this is clearly evident in the way that cannabis legalization has made little headway in this country. Like Mexico, whose Supreme Court ruled that cannabis prohibition violates a citizen's fundamental rights but whose legislature has managed to delay cannabis legalization for years since, we see that successive Argentine governments have tried to stall progress on cannabis legalization as much as possible. In 2017, the Argentine government approved medical cannabis laws but the legislature delayed making this a concrete reality. MJBizDaily reported in November 2020 that, 'This would be four years after Argentina’s approval of its medical cannabis law in March 2017, a sign of how legislative reform does not always translate into immediate – or even near-term – business opportunities.' A week later, MJBizDaily reported that the Argentine government was taking steps to allow cannabis home growing for medical purposes, when it stated that 'The 2020 decree will allow individuals to register to grow marijuana at home for medical use, a move that was welcomed by patients and activists. It’s possible this could lead to ancillary business opportunities for entrepreneurs catering to the niche home cultivation market – as their counterparts have in Canada. Roberto Padilla, a local regulatory advisor, sees the news as “a victory of pro-cannabis activists that now found a government more receptive to decriminalization proposals.” Patients with a “medical indication” will be able to register with the government program to grow at home or have a third person or an association grow for them. However, the requirements to register and other details, such as how much patients will be able to grow, remain unknown.' NORML reported at around the same time that 'The policy change expands upon a 2017 law that provided a legal exemption under the law for qualifying patients with epilepsy to possess cannabis extracts. However, that law provided to legal source to provide patients with access to plant-derived extracts. Under the new law, pharmacies will also for the first time be able to provide specific cannabis products to qualifying patients. “We are replacing a black market that already exists with quality control that is key in all medical products, particularly those that are given to children,” said Argentina’s health minister, Ginés González García.' Since then, I do not think any significant progress has happened in terms of complete cannabis legalization in Argentina. Most government actions appear to be stalling tactics employed to delay complete legalization which is what is needed to make cannabis available to the people in society who need it the most - the poorest classes of society and the working classes who constitute the majority.

All actions towards cannabis legalization everywhere went into limbo for two years, post November 2020, due to the global efforts mounted by the anti-cannabis-legalization forces through the fake pandemic Covid-19. The fake pandemic enabled governments across the world, including in Argentina, to do nothing in terms of cannabis legalization for two years. It also stifled and quelled all cannabis legalization related activism as the whole world fell for the fear and deception that the fake pandemic unleashed. The fake pandemic vastly increased the wealth of the elites and the anti-cannabis forces and at the same time, pushed hundreds of millions into poverty, alcohol and synthetic drug addiction. It tremendously boosted synthetic pharmaceutical sales and sale of petrochemical-based medical equipment. Three years after the fake pandemic, most people continue to be distracted and swayed by the efforts of anti-cannabis forces, losing their focus on the damage that the anti-cannabis forces have unleashed on the planet.

Medical cannabis legalization is itself a deceptive tactic practiced by many governments the world over. Medical cannabis legalization only benefits the rich upper classes. This is because cannabis, a natural herb, is then labeled as a medicine that is sold by pharmaceutical companies (one of the biggest opponents of cannabis legalization) on prescriptions obtained by physicians (another of the biggest opponents of cannabis legalization). The price of medical cannabis and the process of becoming eligible for it is something that only the upper classes have the means for. One must be suffering from a specific medical condition for which all other forms of treatment have failed before one can access medical cannabis. Most people suffering from these conditions will be dead long before that after being dosed with lethal amounts and cocktails of synthetic pharmaceutical medications. For the poor, who will not even be diagnosed with the condition in the first place since they do not even have access to a physician or laboratory capable of making the diagnosis, all this will remain out of reach. Medical cannabis legalization enables the upper classes to legally access cannabis, besides all their other pursuits - alcohol, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids and synthetic pharmaceutical medications - and also to start businesses connected with medical cannabis that they can profit from. The majority of the people who form the poorest classes remain outside its ambit.

The moves by the Argentine government to show interest in legalizing cannabis for medical use seem to have been driven by a number of factors, none of which have anything to do with the welfare of the people. The legalization of cannabis for adult use in Uruguay has resulted in giant medical cannabis companies - primarily from Canada which legalized cannabis for adult recreational use in 2018 - that utilize Uruguay as a cannabis-growing outsourcing destination supplying the cannabis crop for medical cannabis which is then exported to other rich countries in Europe and Oceania. It has also led to the possible increased trafficking of cannabis through the black market and an increased flow of cannabis into Argentina from across international borders. 

One of the ways of obtaining cannabis for one's own elites is to seize the cannabis that external players traffic and then divert it into one's own black market. The increased flow of cannabis through Argentina, primarily for the purposes of the black market, possibly as a result of Uruguay's legalization, has resulted in an increase of cannabis seizures by Argentine authorities, as reported by the United Nations Office of Drug Control (UNODC). In its World Drug Report 2020, UNODC reported that 'In 2018, the largest quantities of cannabis herb seized worldwide continued to be those reported by Paraguay, followed by the United States and India. Cannabis herb produced in Paraguay is reported to have been mainly destined for neighbouring Brazil (77 per cent) and Argentina (20 per cent).' The report states that 'The quantity of cannabis herb seized in 2018 declined by 16 per cent compared with a year earlier, falling to 4,303 tons, the lowest level since 1999. As compared with 2010, the quantity seized fell by 34 per cent at the global level, largely due to decreases reported in North America (-84 per cent), with marked declines being reported by Mexico, the United States and Canada. Discussions and policies aimed at liberalizing the cannabis markets, including changes in the drug’s legislation in Canada and some jurisdictions of the United States, legalizing the production, distribution and the recreational use of cannabis, seem to have played a key role in this respect. By contrast, the quantities of cannabis herb seized almost doubled in the rest of the world over the period 2010–2018 (South America: +194 per cent; Oceania: +94 per cent; Europe: +73 per cent; Asia: +71 per cent; Africa: +53 per cent). The global cannabis herb trafficking index, based on qualitative information reported by Member States on trends in cannabis herb trafficking, also increased over the same period, although the trend appeared to be stabilizing in 2018.'

The proximity to the opium, cocaine and methamphetamine-producing nations of Colombia and Mexico means a heightened danger for the people of Argentina. Argentina claims that Paraguay is responsible for flooding its black market with cannabis. Argentina also says that medical cannabis is important for its people, especially its children. Then why does Argentina not legalize cannabis to negate all these harms? The answer, I think, is that Argentina is still very much in the grip of the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, mining industries, as well as the illegal trade of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine that has the US itself by its testicles, clearly evident from the recent re-election of Donald Trump, one of the most disastrous presidents that the US has ever seen, and a key culprit in the fake pandemic Covid-19.

By taking steps to completely legalize cannabis without any form of regulation, countries like Argentina will be able to grow and trade in cannabis and boost its economy in sustainable ways, besides improving the health of their people. The vast amounts of money spent in the subterfuge that currently occurs with all drug trafficking - the political maneuvers, the militia, drug cartels, drug enforcement, excise and so on - can all be eliminated. The rich countries that depend the most on cannabis, but cannot grow it because they do not have the climatic conditions to do so, can import them legally from countries like Argentina. Cannabis can revolutionize not just medicine and intoxicant in Argentina, but can also spawn a whole plethora of sustainable industries in the areas of  agriculture, fabrics and textiles, construction, biofuels, food, beverages, wellness, tourism, biodegradable plastics, sustainable paper and packaging, and so on. Sustainable cannabis industries can provide employment for vast numbers of the people of Argentina. If the decision makers of Argentina recognized the value of cannabis, in terms of medicinal, recreational, business, industrial, agricultural, environmental and economic value, as well as the reasons for the suffering of the people and the harms that the prohibition of cannabis has caused to its indigenous communities, they would do well to legalize the plant, allow farmers to grow it, enable its people to consume it like any other commodity, and allow its international trade to vastly boost the Argentine economy, besides reviving sustainable industry and vastly boosting public health. 

In 2024, South Africa and Germany legalized cannabis for adult recreational use, albeit in their own limited ways. Germany, had up to that point, been Europe's largest importer of medical cannabis. The difficulty in accessing sufficient cannabis for its needs is probably one of the prime factors for Germany taking the step, as it was greatly dependent on Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and Israel for its supply of medical cannabis. Legalizing cannabis for adult recreational use, with the permission for individuals to home grow cannabis and set up cannabis clubs of up to 100 members are some of the measures that Germany has taken to try and boost its supply of and access to cannabis. But given the climatic conditions in Germany, one is not sure how much high-quality cannabis it will be able to internally produce for its domestic needs. It is here that traditional cannabis growing nations from South America, Asia and Africa can be beneficial as their export of high-quality cannabis can meet the needs of Europe, North America and Oceania. This is ironical, considering that Europe was largely instrumental in bringing about global cannabis prohibition, along with the US. Germany's Health Minister Karl Lauterbach cited protection of the youth and reducing crime as the main reasons for legalizing cannabis for adult recreational use. These are themselves potent reasons to legalize cannabis. Argentina, along with Brazil, is one of the powerhouses of South America. Its act of legalizing cannabis completely will energize other South American nations to do the same, and together they can emerge from the dark shadow that the US has cast on it for a long time now, dragging the South American nations along with it in its addiction for opium, cocaine, methamphetamine, petrochemicals, synthetic pharmaceuticals, and all things synthetic that has led to the catastrophic destruction of the natural world we all share. 

In December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted schedule of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Cannabis does however still remain in its least restrictive schedule, thus more or less maintaining the current status quo around cannabis prohibition and access for the common man. 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. It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization has happened it took the efforts of the people who mobilized themselves through grassroots-level movements to bring about this change. Left to lawmakers legalization would have been impossible, as the main interests of lawmakers concern the protection of the big industries opposed to cannabis such as pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, medical, alcohol and tobacco. For something that truly benefits the people, the people themselves have had to make the change.

Carlos Santana launched his brand of cannabis products, Mirayo, in the recent past. I am not sure how many of these products are available in Argentina, or if it is only available in recreational-cannabis-legal parts of the US. To legalize cannabis in Argentina for all purposes, completely, will be adding an Argentine flavor to global cannabis that will vastly enrich humanity and the natural world, much like the enrichment that Santana's music has brought to millions of his fans the world over, not to forget the magic that Messi weaves around all of us...

Related articles

Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.   

https://www.eldiarioar.com/sociedad/60-argentinos-favor-legalizacion-cannabis-adultos_1_8222027.html

https://radiomitre.cienradios.com/el-gobierno-impulsa-el-desarrollo-de-la-industria-del-cannabis-medicinal/

https://www.ambito.com/politica/cannabis/senado-continuo-el-debate-del-proyecto-regular-la-produccion-y-comercializacion-n5213043

https://rosario.telefe.com/informacion-general/la-corte-suprema-le-ordeno-a-una-obra-social-proveer-aceite-de-cannabis-a-paciente-con-epilepsia/

'Yes, the medicine has been used since time immemorial by American Indians from Canada to Brazil. They always knew that there was ‘medicine’ and ‘drugs.’ Medicine—Mother Nature makes with the help of photosynthesis, which is the sun. Drugs are made in a laboratory by a man. So there’s drugs and then there’s medicine. And my mom always knew about herbs for tea and ointment and all kinds of stuff.'

https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/carlos-santana-mirayo-interview

'This would be four years after Argentina’s approval of its medical cannabis law in March 2017, a sign of how legislative reform does not always translate into immediate – or even near-term – business opportunities.'

https://mjbizdaily.com/argentina-inches-closer-to-first-locally-made-cannabis-medicine/

'The 2020 decree will allow individuals to register to grow marijuana at home for medical use, a move that was welcomed by patients and activists.

It’s possible this could lead to ancillary business opportunities for entrepreneurs catering to the niche home cultivation market – as their counterparts have in Canada.

Roberto Padilla, a local regulatory advisor, sees the news as “a victory of pro-cannabis activists that now found a government more receptive to decriminalization proposals.”

Patients with a “medical indication” will be able to register with the government program to grow at home or have a third person or an association grow for them.

However, the requirements to register and other details, such as how much patients will be able to grow, remain unknown.'

https://mjbizdaily.com/argentina-redraws-medical-cannabis-rules-allowing-home-cultivation/

'The policy change expands upon a 2017 law that provided a legal exemption under the law for qualifying patients with epilepsy to possess cannabis extracts. However, that law provided to legal source to provide patients with access to plant-derived extracts.

Under the new law, pharmacies will also for the first time be able to provide specific cannabis products to qualifying patients. “We are replacing a black market that already exists with quality control that is key in all medical products, particularly those that are given to children,” said Argentina’s health minister, Ginés González García.'

https://norml.org/news/2020/11/19/argentina-presidential-decree-permits-for-licensed-home-cultivation-of-medical-cannabis

https://elplanteo.com/argentina-que-dijo-alberto-fernandez-sobre-cannabis-en-su-discurso/

https://pleno.news/mundo/argentina-abre-registro-de-sementes-de-cannabis-para-cultivo-medicinal.html

'In 2018, the largest quantities of cannabis herb seized worldwide continued to be those reported by Paraguay, followed by the United States and India. Cannabis herb produced in Paraguay is reported to have been mainly destined for neighbouring Brazil (77 per cent) and Argentina (20 per cent). Over the period 2008–2018, the largest cannabis herb seizures worldwide took place in the United States, followed by Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia, Nigeria, Morocco, Brazil, India and Egypt' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020,

https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

Afghanistan and Mexico source the heroin and morphine. Mexico, Thailand, Myanmar and China source the methamphetamine. The Middle East and Eastern Europe sources the amphetamine. The US consumes heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Europe consumes heroin, morphine, methamphetamine and amphetamine. Asia consumes heroin, morphine and methamphetamine. Australia consumes methamphetamine. The Middle East consumes heroin and amphetamine. West Asia consumes heroin and methamphetamine. All countries grow and consume cannabis. Opioids, methamphetamine and amphetamines kill the most in terms of drug deaths, cannabis kills none. Who are the leading opponents to cannabis legalization and leading enforcers of global anti-cannabis policy? The countries involved the most in heroin, morphine, amphetamines and methamphetamines. They put on a mask of concern about harms from drugs, produce, sell and consume the most dangerous synthetic drugs and vehemently oppose cannabis legalization worldwide while clandestinely feeding their habits and protecting their sources. They use arms and armies to protect and promote their synthetic drug habits, and drug money to fund and wage a war on cannabis everywhere, pushing man and planet ever closer to death on massive scales and away from the safe, healing cannabis herb...

'The quantity of cannabis herb seized in 2018 declined by 16 per cent compared with a year earlier, falling to 4,303 tons, the lowest level since 1999. As compared with 2010, the quantity seized fell by 34 per cent at the global level, largely due to decreases reported in North America (-84 per cent), with marked declines being reported by Mexico, the United States and Canada. Discussions and policies aimed at liberalizing the cannabis markets, including changes in the drug’s legislation in Canada and some jurisdictions of the United States, legalizing the production, distribution and the recreational use of cannabis, seem to have played a key role in this respect. By contrast, the quantities of cannabis herb seized almost doubled in the rest of the world over the period 2010–2018 (South America: +194 per cent; Oceania: +94 per cent; Europe: +73 per cent; Asia: +71 per cent; Africa: +53 per cent). The global cannabis herb trafficking index, based on qualitative information reported by Member States on trends in cannabis herb trafficking, also increased over the same period, although the trend appeared to be stabilizing in 2018.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020,

https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf