Costa Rica lawmakers visit Denver to get a “taste” of legalized Cannabis

(Timothy Morales / Facebook)

October 16^th, 2015 (ICR News) A group of five Costa Rican lawmakers visited Denver, Colorado recently to see what the legal cannabis industry looks like first-hand.

Reps. Gonzalo Ramirez of the Costa Rican Renovation Party, Paulina Ramirez and Juan Luis Jimenez Succar (PLN), Jose Alfaro of the Libertarian Movement (ML), and Johnny Lewis of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) visited the city, where cannabis is legal for both medicinal and recreational use, on October 1-6.

“We wanted to extend an invitation to them to see how the industry works since the 2010 legalization of medicinal use and the 2012 legalization of recreational use.  They could see first hand how dispensaries, laboratories and [growing operations] work,” Gerald Murray of the Costa Rica Medical Cannabis Movement, told CRHoy.com.

Murray’s organization, which paid for the trip with supporters’ donations, hopes to convince lawmakers debating a medical marijuana bill in the country’s Legislative Assembly to consider a model more similar to that of the one in Denver, instead of the strict “industrial” medical cannabis bill being considered.

The current bill seeks to legalize and strictly regulate cannabis-derived medicines and medical treatments, including tablets, suppositories, ointments, sprays, patches, and injections amongst others.  The smoking of marijuana however would remain off-limits.

“They saw that a regulated industry with tax works,” Murray said.

Support and Opposition

The bill – in its current form – has some surprising supporters, but opposition also remains strong.

Costa Rica’s National Academy of Medicine categorically denounced the bill in June, saying that the medicinal uses of marijuana and its derivatives are “very limited,” adding that the “potential benefit [of medical marijuana] is no better than conventional medications currently available and in use.”

The Academy also expressed its concern that the bill, if approved would open the door for legislation legalizing the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, which it said “would lead to unpredictable and negative consequences” especially in “susceptible groups” such as minors.

Meanwhile, the Costa Rican public health system known as CCSS and the Ministry of Health have endorsed the bill with conditions, including the prohibition of recreational use.  CCSS has gone as far as to say that such treatments would be covered and provided to patients free of charge.

Perhaps the bill’s most surprising endorsement so far has come from Costa Rica’s Lutheran Church. In June, the president of Costa Rica’s Lutheran Church described marijuana as a “plant of God,” while expressing his approval of medicinal use of the plant, adding that “[marijuana] should not be demonized, the plant itself is harmless and can have a proper use.”

A 2013 survey conducted by the School of Statistics at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) found that 52.9% of Costa Ricans said they would support medical use of marijuana, though the same survey found that just 15% of Costa Ricans would support blanket legalization for recreational use.