Argentinian Government To Roll Back Medical Cannabis Program—300K Patients At Risk, Experts Warn: Legal Battle Ahead?
Via El Planteo
Argentina’s medical cannabis program is at a crossroads following a series of conflicting statements from top government officials. Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich recently announced that all registrations under the country’s medical cannabis registry, REPROCANN, would be revoked due to the alleged “diversion” of cannabis into the illicit market. The move sparked immediate backlash from legal experts, patient advocacy groups and the cannabis industry, raising concerns about its legality and potential public health consequences.
During an interview on TV channel TN, Bullrich framed REPROCANN as a system fraught with abuse. “We are going to revoke everything and start from scratch,” she declared, insisting that “a vast majority” of registered cultivators were supplying the black market. However, Bullrich provided no evidence to support her claim that 90,000 registered individuals were involved in illegal activity, highlighting a major lack of substantiation in the government’s position.
Government Walks Back On Full REPROCANN Repeal
One day after Bullrich’s announcement, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni tempered the government’s stance, stating that REPROCANN would not be abolished outright but rather “reformulated.” Speaking at a press briefing, Adorni acknowledged that the program had deviated from its original purpose of providing cannabis to patients in need but assured that the decision “has nothing to do with shutting it down or doing anything that would complicate things in medicinal terms.”
Despite this softer rhetoric, contradictions within the government remain evident. While Adorni attempted to soften Bullrich’s hardline approach, he did not …