generalspeaking

Health and Development for Colombia?

"When you mention Colombia, unfortunately, some people relate that name with illegal drugs."
"We have an opportunity here to take a controlled substance and change that reputation, to bring health to people and development to our country."
"I feel great about doing this [producing cannabis for the medical cannabis company Clever Leaves he co-founded in 2016]." 
"This is the right way to use controlled substances."
"Pharmaceuticals always come from the global north to South America to Africa to Asia."
"This is something that is changing that model. This is from Colombia to the world."
Julian Wilches, formerly director of drug policy, Justice Ministry, Colombia

"The cannabis industry in the last three months has faced a reduction in investment, but the interest in Colombia is still very promising."
"Colombia in the near future will become a centre for development and research for the industry."

Juan Diego Alvarez, vice-president regulatory affairs, Khiron Life Sciences Corp.

Workers prune marijuana plants at a Clever Leaves greenhouse in Pesca, Colombia. The company employs over 450 people. Courtesy of Clever Leaves

Colombia has had a lot of experience with narcotics production, all illegal, all leading to human tragedy, violence, laying waste whole communities, while marking the country as a narco-trafficking distribution centre. Suddenly all that has changed, the country has become respectable after its struggle to cope with cocaine marketing, violence, and just incidentally its battles with FARC, the anti-government guerrilla group.

Now the country has adopted the medical cannabis industry as a legitimate, money-making scheme in a world where there are never enough recreational drugs to make everyone happy. In Bogota, the word is that Colombia's time has come, as marijuana has been embraced around the world as a drug that can be usefully harnessed for medical uses. Even as various governments have legalized recreational cannabis, and more are following.

Investment from growers in Canada and the United States among others have placed a half-billion dollars into the country to buy up farmland, build greenhouses and produce oils, creams and associated products containing cannabidiol (CBD) in new operating laboratories, to treat chronic pain, insomnia and everything in between. None of these operations are purportedly interested in growing THC-infused cannabis for smokers' highs.

The narco state of Pablo Escobar is no more, in lock step with the growing, glowing cannabis market with an estimated value of over $50 billion by 2025. Colombia sees itself as the centre of production, exporting product worldwide where cannabis use is being legalized. Oddly, Colombia itself has not yet seen fit to legalize cannabis beyond modest quantities for personal use.

An aerial view of the Clever Leaves plantation in Pesca. It currently covers 37 acres and plans to expand cultivation to over 200 acres of marijuana plants by 2021.Courtesy of Clever Leaves

Clever Leaves' greenhouses located on a huge farm in a valley in the Andes some eight thousand feet above sea level, is producing roughly25 tonnes of dried cannabis annually. An expansion will see production rise to around 324 tonnes by 2020, when it will become one of the world's largest growers. Cannabis cultivation is legal under permit since 2016. The country, close to the equator, has a guaranteed 12 hours of sunlight all year. No artificial light required.

A grab-bag of Canadian, publicly traded companies have been attracted to Colombia, names such as Canopy Growth Corp., PharmaCielo Ltd., Khiron Life Sciences Corp., Aurora Cannabis Inc., and Aphria Inc., among the largest in the global industry. This, despite emerging concerns over lung illnesses and deaths related to vaping in the United States. Profit for the industry's largest concerns has not yet materialized; they're gambling on future stakes.

Revenue from the cannabis sector in Colombia is forecast to swell to $791 million by 2025 from its current $99 million, with researchers estimating the U.S. market alone for CBD to the value of close to $23 billion by 2023. Colombia's President Ivan Duque has promised to cut bureaucracy and that his government is prepared to give its full support to the industry.

Even as Colombia anticipates increasing exports to the U.K., Poland and Germany once EU approval is given, other Latin American countries from Mexico to Argentina are putting laws in place enabling industries to develop there.

Colombia Cannabis Farming    © iStock/Ernesto Tereñes

Labels: Cannabis Farming, Colombia, Legitimacy, Narco-State

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, October 26, 2019