Thousands of cannabis users marched for the decriminalization of self-cultivation

Thousands of people marched this Saturday from Plaza de Mayo to Congress to request the decriminalization of cannabis home cultivation and the effective implementation of the law authorizing its medicinal use.

"We still fight because the State allows us to cultivate in our homes without being afraid of being imprisoned.For the law, the mother who has a plant to make medicine for her son is equal to a drug trafficker who has quantities to sell," he said. Télam Yanina Soto, member of Mama Cultiva, organization that groups families of children with refractory epilepsy and other diseases.

The Law of Medicinal Cannabis approved in March 2017 by the National Congress does not authorize home cultivation and, although it was regulated by the Executive in September, none of the public bodies authorized to investigate the therapeutic uses of the plant began to cultivate.

Soto is the mother of Daniela, a 14-year-old girl with refractory epilepsy and maturational delay who, a year and a half ago, accompanies her conventional medical treatment with cannabis oil.

have five or six seizures per day to have one or two per month. His maturational development was greater and his performance at school improved. This was seen by the doctors who follow their case and who today endorse the cannabis treatment, they are interested in knowing what strains they take, what amounts and how they evolve, "said Yanina.

Although she added: " It is difficult for us to understand that for us this is not a business, it is quality of life and my daughter's right to her health. We do not have time to wait for the State to regulate, allow self-cultivation and begin to experiment. If we wait, the boys continue to be degraded. "

For Yanina, the main obstacle to decriminalization is" the pharmacological business. Our children take medicines that cost fortunes: if we reduce this consumption, the laboratories will be the harmed ones. "

In the march were also the growers, some of them grouped in civil associations like" Cogollos del Oeste ", whose slogan was "Enough of prisoners and prey to be cultivated."

"The plant is one and the separation of its use is irrelevant. The use is adult and responsible and the goal is always to be better, whether you take an oil because you have pain or if you smoke at night because you are stressed, "said Telam Facundo Rivadeneira spokesman for Cogollos del Oeste

Rivadeneira said that "behind every prohibition there is a speculative market that profits from the most vulnerable sectors and the health of the people: we want to access safely."

The Avenida de Mayo was also populated by hundreds of teenagers who did not march with any organization but put forward arguments with forcefulness.

"Like all things, cannabis has positive and negative effects, you just have to know how to regulate it and that is achieved with information, and if it is illegal, the information is reduced, "a 17-year-old high school senior told Telam.

Another consumer argued that decriminalization is being requested" simply because it is a plant, something Atural with moderate consumption does not do bad. "

Ignacio is 33 years old and cannabis recreationally for three years, he never bought marijuana because he does not want to" encourage the illegal market "and plants on his balcony.

"Behind the prohibition is drug trafficking and a string of bribes that you do not know where it ends," he said.