There has been a lot of important news both for and against cannabis during 2016, most of which has been centered on countries such as the United States and Canada. Because of this, it is also forgotten that there are other countries around the globe fighting cannabis laws and coming out on top. One of those countries is Costa Rica; Tim Morales is the executive director of the Cannabis Association of Costa Rica, and one of the masterminds behind this last July’s Latin America Medical Cannabis Conference held in San Jose, Costa Rica.
“It was excellent. We had people from a number of countries fly in and a couple of [Costa Rican] Senators attended both days, so it was great to see the support of politicians,” Morales said in an interview.
The event involved various speakers to tell a message about how marijuana can be a huge force for economic expansion. Of of the event’s organizers’ goals was to help push a pending measure through the Costa Rican Congress which would allow doctors throughout the country to prescribe medical cannabis to those that need it. Because of a de-facto court decision at the start of 2016, recreational cannabis in Costa Rica is actually legal, in that the justice system determined Costa Ricans are able to cultivate their own for personal use. Selling, though, is still not allowed.
“We had this event at the end of July hoping to push this bill across the goal line for debate,” Morales continued. “At the end of the second day, Senator Atencio told me and another [organizer] to come outside. He informed us that he received a phone call from the Ministry of Health that the President is going to call the bill in August. For that to happen at our conference was a huge thing.”
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