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