Colombian President Ivan Duque (L) visits the Clever Leaves company in Boyaca, Colombia on July 23, 2021 Colombia gave the green light Friday to export dried cannabis flowers for use in medical products in addition to allowing manufacturers to produce goods such as textiles or food containing the plant. In a bold embrace of a booming global market, President Ivan Duque signed a decree ending “the ban on the export of dried flower” in an event organized at Clever Leaves, one of the 18 multinationals that grow medicinal cannabis in Colombia. Colombia, the world’s top producer of cocaine and which has major cannabis production, legalized the production of medical marijuana in 2016. Authorities had feared that exportation of the flowers would allow them to be diverted to the illegal side of the trade. Flowers, which concentrate the plant’s medicinal and psychoactive compounds, “may represent 53 percent of this market worldwide,” according to Duque. “We are no longer only in pharmaceutical use. We are opening the space to do much more in cosmetics… food and beverages” and even textiles, the president said. The rule also “helps control the informal market for fraudulent products” based on marijuana that has had a recent boom in Colombia, Currea said. Other countries in the region such as Uruguay, Ecuador, and Peru have also legalized the production of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Mmp News Author, Medical Marijuana Program Connection, 07/24/2021 01:12:00
Open article: https://mmpconnect.com/colombia-authorizes-export-of-dried-cannabis-flowers/