The Parliament of Japan (Diet) approved this Wednesday a legislative amendment to legalize the use of medicines derived from cannabis (marijuana), which also seeks to remedy the existing loopholes regarding the criminalization of its recreational consumption.
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The Asian country had been allowing the use of medicines made from cannabis only for clinical trials, but patient groups have been demanding access to cannabidiol products derived from this plant, already approved in Europe and the United States for medical conditions such as intractable epilepsy.
Under the amendment, the use of medicines made from marijuana derivatives will be permitted, as well as the cultivation of this plant in order to collect raw materials for the production of drugs and other products.according to its details published by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
(Also read: With a drone they tried to put marijuana in Palogordo de Girón prison, Santander).
The amendment was approved this Wednesday in the Upper House of the Japanese Parliament with the majority of the ruling coalition. The revision of the Cannabis Control Law, which will come into force one year after its enactment, affects cannabis and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive substance found in the plant, and which will be subject to new regulations.
In a pioneering move for the country, these substances will be classified as narcotics within the framework of the national Law on the Control of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. that prohibits and penalizes their possession, transfer or consumption.
Although the cultivation, possession and trafficking of cannabis were already prohibited and penalized in Japan, the use of these substances in particular was not punishable, something that will change from the entry into force of the legal review, which will punish up to seven years in prison for recreational consumption.
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The fact that cannabis consumption was not penalized in the country is due to the traditional cultivation of this plant for the use of hemp in a wide variety of products, including clothing, food condiments or the abundant religious rites linked to Shintoism, the indigenous religion of the Japanese archipelago.
This sought to protect farmers who could absorb these substances when growing this plant for such purposes. The Japanese authorities have nevertheless decided to regulate in this regard due to the increase in arrests linked to marijuana, especially of young people in their twenties.
The changes will lead to there being two different licenses to grow cannabis, One of them will allow it to be used to manufacture medicines and the other will contemplate other purposes, such as manufacturing hemp products, including clothing.
These legal modifications associated with the cultivation of marijuana will come into force two years after being enacted.
EFE
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