The business around the medical uses and legalization of cannabis has developed into a global fever.

The cannabis market has always been dominated by the developed world, North America and Europe being the largest consumers. The legalization for recreational and medical use has spawned a burgeoning industry devoted to the cultivation of the plant in these countries but Colombia’s geographical position is key to the opportunity to turn the exploitation of this plant into ‘green gold’. Being equatorial, Colombia receives 12 hours a day of sunlight year-round, and extending the photoperiod with lighting for only a few hours a day during the vegetation stage in a special area before planting outdoors, would allow up to SIX crops per year.  This condition is a great advantage over countries dedicated to exploiting the plant for medicinal purposes, such as Canada, where cultivation is almost exclusively indoors requiring extensive expenditure on energy. In the case of outdoor cultivation, where feasible only one crop per year is possible.  Colombia, on the other hand, besides the advantage of the climate, has the cost of production. “In Colombia, producing one gram of cannabis costs 10 cents compared with Canada, that is around 2 dollars”