MEXICO.- Since the communities of various municipalities of Oaxaca obtained legal permits to plant and harvest marijuana last year, the commercial commitment has escalated… Even a mezcal with cannabis that seeks to win the market!
It has not been an easy process, acknowledge residents of the municipalities of San Dionisio Ocotepec, San Pablo Güilá, Rancho Blanco Güilá, San Felipe Matatlán, San Nicolás Yaxe, San Baltazar Chichicapam, and other small rancherías.
To begin with, they have had to group together in an organization: the Association of Indigenous Cannabis Producers to push together.
Although this type of teamwork is something everyday in Oaxacans because in many localities they are governed by uses and customs that prioritize the community over the individual, have also had to seek legal advice since 2017, when they saw an opportunity in the reform of the General Health Law.
The legislation opened an opportunity to recognize the medicinal use of cannabis, allow its planting, harvesting, preparation, conditioning or extraction. The only limit had been for medicinal and scientific purposes.
However, after 2018, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) created jurisprudence on the medicinal and scientific use of marijuana by stating that it is constitutional for use among adults and, furthermore, for recreational purposes.
Since then, the Ministry of Health has been forced to recognize users and consumers of cannabis who request authorization for self-cultivation activities with marijuana, both for medicinal and recreational use.
Thus began the battle of some 26 social organizations belonging to communities in Oaxaca. Horacio Sosa, deputy for Morena, says that the achievement is thanks to the community organization of the Indigenous Association of Cannabis Producers, the Consulting and Management of Educational, Cultural and Community Projects (AMATE), Comcausa Binacional, the Martín y Asociados Consulting; Compliance Hedge and Oaxaca Highland.
“It was teamwork”, he insists.
To obtain the authorizations from the Ministry of Health, the organizations relied on the jurisprudence of the SCJN so that the producers who wish to do so can do so legally. The next step, they say, is to combat the stigmatization of the indigenous communities that plant it because since the global ban in 65 it has become infamous.
At the beginning of the last century, Mexico was the leader in the production of henequen as hemp thread (a variant of marijuana) until prohibitionist policies buried the industry.
Currently, these communities that obtained the production permit seek to spread its use for the elaboration of medicines and analgesics against diseases such as cancer and epilepsy; for the generation of threads, fibers or products that replace plastic.
“In reality, most of the types of cannabis do not have the hallucinogenic substance, the one that has THC is a variety nothing more, ”says Sosa.
On the other hand, there is a variant whose seed has 25% of its nutritional value of protein: it is known as “hemp” and local prohibition policies pushed consumers to demand importation from Canada, where it has been legal for years.
The mezcal
Parallel to the permits obtained by the organizations, some companies have begun to manufacture an agave distillate whose main attraction is cannabis while the Mexican government, still without defining its policies for comprehensively, continues to seize marijuana for commercial purposes on a large scale.
In Mexico, marijuana is the most consumed illegal drug among the population . It is estimated that some seven million Mexicans, 8.6% of adults between 18 and 65 years old, have tried it at least once.
In 2021, the general declaration of unconstitutionality of the SCJN, published on June 28, proposed to eliminate marijuana as an illicit drug in the General Health Law and privilege the right to decide people.
The general guideline of the Supreme Court is that any adult older than 18 years old should be able to go to Cofepris, request a sanitary authorization to grow cannabis at home, for personal consumption, without marketing purposes.
But the devil is in the details. And the details should be in a regulation that Cofepris has not elaborated nor has Congress complied with the mandate of the country’s highest court on regularizing yerba.
That is why there is a lot of confusion. While Oaxacan organizations bet on the medicinal path, other local businessmen began promoting the sale of agave distillate with cannabinoids.
They argue that it is cannabis that only has the CVD component (not hallucinogenic) and that they obtain it from hemp extract.
Javier Zárate, director of Casa Zárate Mezcales Finos, announced that in his distillery they began to use the flavors of plants such as cannabis or hallucinogenic mushrooms as part of the processes of the espadín criollo, tepeztate, arroqueño, cuish and tobalá.
“These are processes that involve the work of laboratories to extract the properties of these elements and then combine them with the distillate,” he warned in a public announcement. “There are three stages: fermentation and distillation; the percentage of cannabis oil and the maceration in barrels to which sufficient grass is also integrated for a decorative purpose. The preparation spends two years in the barrel and one in the bottle”.
Casa Zárate Mezcales Finos offer 20 types of mezcal with various varieties of cannabis as exotic interpretations; in addition to classic special mezcals such as espadín with worm, gold, pink and young. Beverages that are also exported to Spain, France and the United States.
The marketing of this type of product in the country has already begun to cause problems. The director of Sanitary Regulation in Aguascalientes, warned that a criminal complaint will be filed against those who market any type of product that contains marijuana or residues of that drug , after the seizure of mezcal with cannabis from Oaxaca.
“Marijuana should not be mixed with any other commercial product, such as alcoholic beverages, bagels or candy,” he said. “We are checking the origin, so that in any case those who produce and distribute it show us the authorizations, because otherwise the one who will be sanctioned is the producer and distributor.”
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