Advocates were confident that the time for Costa Rica to tap the cannabis market had arrived. On Tuesday, October 19, after a debate, Congress approved a bill to legalize and regulate both hemp and medical cannabis in the country. But a group of ten deputies sent the bill to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court for legal review, pumping the brakes on the final vote on the bill, which had been scheduled for last week in Congress. Zoila Rosa Volio, an independent deputy and sponsor of the bill, was clearly upset about the turn of events. The bill, Volio said, has been “sent to the Constitutional Chamber even though it had no flaws in the procedure, simply for the sake of delaying it and in detriment of chronic patients, the creation of employment, investment and the country,” she wrote on Twitter after the news broke. The bill had first passed on October 6 in the Legislative Assembly´s Environmental Committee where legislators made amendments to the proposal, including lowering the cost of licenses.
Laura Gamba, Cannabis Wire, 10/27/2021 20:00:00