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MEDIA: Teleamazonas
The project of the Organic Health Code (COS) has been vetoed by the Executive affecting several sectors of Ecuador. One of those that has not been affected has been the cannabis sector; the news channel Teleamazonas interviewed our Partner and President of the Ecuadorian Association of Cannabis Industries Felipe Samaniego to provide his expert legal vision on this situation.
“This entire industry that is developing around cannabis and hemp definitely does not stop,” Samaniego said in this interview.
The Legal Secretary of Carondele Johana Pesántez argued the veto saying that the COS “contains an extensive development of technical issues in health matters that suffers from inaccuracies, erroneous definitions and an unclear health system structure in terms of competencies and responsibilities; it lacks a true update in terms of focus and content according to the requirements of society and the world “.
Last year, the National Assembly approved reforms to the COIP that allowed the production and distribution of products made from cannabis. This reform decriminalized the use of this plant for medicinal purposes, but the legal framework that allows its commercialization is still lacking.
With reference to this, Felipe Samaniego assures that there are two “authorities that must intervene. One for cultivation and the other for what is already the finished product. What the Ministry of Agriculture is doing is regulating what contains less than 1 % THC and the Ministry of Health must regulate what has 1% or more “, explains our Partner.
After the interview with Samaniego, the news published by Teleamazonas gathers the opinion of other experts who see in this veto an opportunity for the cannabis industry to continue growing. They also hope that this industry can advance with the production and generation of resources for Ecuador with the issuance of regulations with the respective legal framework.