Latin America, the New Leader of the ’Green Rush’

In previous articles , we have discussed  the potential of Latin America and the role of science in the cannabis industry. Today, we will review how scientific research to demonstrate the therapeutic potential of cannabis has changed the entire industry, providing scientific evidence to generate new regulations and positioning Latin American scientists as global leaders in creating research protocols to demonstrate all the benefits and therapeutic potential of several cannabinoids.

To initiate this conversation, we must understand how scientific research in Latin America regarding the potential of various cannabinoids has allowed different countries in the region to generate specific regulations that positively impact access to these cannabinoid derivatives and has allowed government officials to understand their health benefits, marking a difference with the regulatory processes for the traditional pharmaceutical industry.

The first Latin American country that allowed access to non-psychoactive cannabis products for medicinal purposes was Brazil. Between 2015 and 2019, Brazil established a unique access mechanism for these products through the emission of special permits by the Brazilian regulatory agency, ANVISA.

After this first approach to cannabis regulations in Latin America, Mexico became one of the first countries to adhere to the creation of scientific protocols to understand the usage of cannabidiol, or CBD, as a coadjuvant treatment for drug-resistant epilepsies in pediatric patients.  The first two scientific investigations by Dr. Saul Garza and Dr. Carlos Aguirre, along with pressure from civil groups, led to the assessment of protocols by the Mexican regulatory agencies in 2016, and to the later delivery of the first two legal permits to allow Mexican families to have access to a product with high concentrations of CBD and without any psychoactive components as part of their treatment.  Those permits were only granted after a medical diagnosis and with a medical prescription. 

This first milestone allowed Mexican patients with refractory epilepsies to access products with high concentrations of cannabidiol, thanks to the research protocols made by Mexican scientists to prove the efficiency of CBD as a coadjuvant to treat epilepsies. Another significant milestone was marked by Mexican legislators in 2017 when they approved changes to the General Health Law to recognize the legal therapeutic potential of cannabis-derived products and even recognized other industrial applications of hemp plants and extracts.

Regarding  Brazil, since 2019, that country has established specific regulations to allow products with CBD in pharmacies, to promote scientific research for these kinds of products, requesting the companies that sell the products to initiate research protocols and demonstrate the safety and efficiency of CBD products as an essential element in maintaining their importation and sales authorizations.

As a result of the creation of the regulation for the production, research, and usage of medical cannabis, Mexico became one of the Latin American countries with  broad development of scientific research for cannabinoids, showcasing the efficiency of cannabidiol, not only as a coadjuvant to treat patients with epilepsies. These rules, presented in 2021, became instrumental in allowing Mexican scientists to initiate several research protocols to understand the impact of cannabinoids in other health conditions like Alzheimer’s, but also to understand how CBD can aid in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and even as a neuroprotector to avoid neurotoxicity in the treatment of traumatic brain Injuries.

We couldn't go further with this recap to understand the impact that science has had in helping regulators to establish a legal  framework in Latin America without talking about how Argentinian regulators created an entire national research program to understand the medical applications of cannabis and non-conventional treatments. This program has produced some significant milestones for the region regarding cannabis-related scientific evidence, like that by Dr. Silvia Kochen at Hospital El Cruce (Nestor Kirchner). This research showcased that over 32% of adult patients with drug-resistant epilepsies were able to gain  80 and 90% control of their epileptic crises.

With all the evidence mentioned above, we can see how Latin American scientists have become global leaders in crafting research protocols and obtaining scientific evidence about the way that various cannabinoids can help to improve people's quality of life. This scientific evidence is vital for regulators and governments to make decisions based on factual evidence to generate new laws that allow access to these kinds of products, but above all, it's becoming a trend that, we are sure, will become the most important for the industry around the globe. An example of this trend going global is the US, which recently approved an expansion act to allow cannabis research at a federal level, and the European parliament that already recognizes cannabinoids research to grant permits for those products throughout the entire continent.