Ministry of Health and Social Protection Press Bulletin No 113 of 2017
– Completes the regulation for the entire process of production, cultivation and transformation of cannabis for medical and scientific purposes.
-Resolutions: 2891 of 2017 and 2892 of 2017
Bogotá, August 16, 2017.- With the publication of five resolutions, the Government of Colombia has concluded the process of defining the rules of the game for the production and transformation of cannabis for medical and scientific purposes.
The resolutions define who will be considered small and medium growers – and therefore obtain benefits – and set the technical requirements and tariffs for the cultivation of the plant and its transformation into medicinal, phytotherapeutic and homeopathic products.
The regulation, in effect, establishes that 10 percent of the total production of the transformer must come from a small and medium producer.
The resolutions issued by the Ministry of Health set the rates that firms that carry out plant transformation processes must pay (Resolution 2891 of 2017), as well as the technical standards that must be followed (Resolution 2892 of 2017).
Among other aspects, the latter defines the security protocol that must be implemented in the facilities where cannabis is researched and processed, the requirements to serve as technical director of these facilities, the conditions for transportation, and the maximum authorized quantities of transformation. (quotas).
On the other hand, the resolutions issued by the Ministry of Justice (577 and 578) technically regulate the evaluation and follow-up corresponding to the licensing modalities that correspond to this entity -cultivation of psychoactive, non-psychoactive cannabis and use of seeds- and establish the fees that must be paid to obtain these licenses.
With these resolutions culminates a long normative process that began with Law 30 of 1986, whose regulation had to wait until 2015, when the Government issued Decree 2467.
As of that decree, the Ministry of Health granted the first six transformation licenses to the Colombian companies Cannalivio, Pideka, Ecomedics and Econabis, the Canadian Cannavida and the Colombian-Canadian Pharmacielo.
To give greater institutionality to the initiative, Senator Juan Manuel Galán promoted Law 1787 of 2016, which implied repealing the previous regulation and processing a new one. This was how Decree 613 of April 2017 included benefits for small producers and growers of cannabis for medicinal purposes, established the differences between psychoactive and non-psychoactive cannabis and regulated the commercialization and research of seeds.
