Growing green

WHILE THERE ARE STILL SOME ROADBLOCKS, PERU’S FIRST YEAR IN LEGAL MEDICAL CANNABIS HAS DEMONSTRATED THE COUNTRY’S ENORMOUS POTENTIAL.

DESPITE THE GLOBAL COVID-19 PANDEMIC, 2020 was a positive year for the medical cannabis industry in Peru. The country saw approximately 1,790 prescriptions filled for more than 9,000 patients. The industry experienced a boom following the publication of official regulations regarding the cultivation, production, and distribution of cannabis in December 2019. While initial legislation for the drug was first passed in 2017, certain rules and guidelines stipulating how companies can apply for the necessary licenses were not released until December 2019.

Peru now issues licenses related to the research, import, production, wholesale marketing, retail sale, and seed production of cannabis. While the country has been slow to issue licenses, there is no cap on the number that can be issued. The industry, however, remains heavily regulated, and many of the rules surrounding production are related to general health care regulations, specifically for import and commercialization. Types of licenses are available that both include and exclude cannabis cultivation, and there is also a license for seed production. As part of the 2017 legislation, companies with approved production licenses are allowed to import seeds from abroad, such as from nearby Colombia, where the market has witnessed impressive growth since it began in recent years.

In order to obtain a license for production, prospective companies must submit an agricultural production plan, detailing the proposed process from sowing the seeds to harvest. For research, production, and commercialization licenses, applicants are required to submit a security plan detailing plans to prevent any of the plants or products from being diverted to the illegal market.

For decades, Peru had strictly enforced its laws prohibiting the use of cannabis. However, public opinion on its cultivation and use has changed in recent years, especially when it was discovered that a group of local mothers was clandestinely cultivating the crop in order to provide medicine for their children. The Ministry of Health later released guidelines regarding the medical use of cannabis and cannabis derivatives.

Well before the December 2019 guidelines were released, companies from Peru and around the world were preparing themselves for the market. Canada-based cannabis company Canopy Growth Corporation, for example, opened its production. Another Canadian company operating in the country is Tilray, and Australia’s Zelda Therapeutics is currently in talks with local companies to begin business. Among local Peruvian companies establishing themselves are Cannabis & Co, which aims to open a chain of drug stores selling primarily cannabis products, as well as housing space dedicated to educating consumers. Greenspot Biomedical Peru is also at work in the country, with plans to cultivate as many as 150ha of the crop.

Many of these businesses, however, had not, and in some cases still have not, received approval to produce and sell their products. Despite what may have seemed like an array of businesses waiting for the green light, the country surprisingly ran out of all its cannabis products just three months into 2020. The Peruvian General Directorate of Medicines, Supplies and Drugs had initially purchased just 10 liters of oil containing 5% CBD, a non-intoxicating compound found in cannabis, from Anden Naturals, an Oregon-based producer. The oil was sold to the country’s medical patients for around USD14 for a 10-ml bottle. Even before the supply had run out, the government’s rollout had received some flak from patients and those in the industry, who criticized it for not issuing licenses but rather providing the entire country with just one product available at only one government pharmacy that was depleted in only months.

Throughout 2020, companies submitted the registration for various cannabis products. By October, the first registered cannabis medicine was available to patients. Epifractan, a 5% CBD oil manufactured in Uruguay and imported by Cann Farm, became the first cannabis product sold in the country by the private sector. By the end of the year, it was available in a number of pharmacies throughout the country. By the end of the year, Peru had issued more than 25 import and marketing licenses for wholesalers and laboratories, over 30 marketing licenses for pharmacies and one production license. Approximately 34 applications for marketing authorization were submitted to the government by aspiring companies, and by the end of 2020 six had been granted.