Colombia’s Prospects as an International MMJ Player

January 30, 2018, Colombia

Colombia, which is long known for its deadly drug wars and the largest black market of cocaine, is making its foray in the legalized cultivation of marijuana for its healthcare industry. Recently, a Canadian MMJ company, ICC Labs, has been provided a license to cultivate non-THC marijuana in the South American country. The harvest will be used to make several CBD containing MMJ products for domestic and international market. So, there is a possibility of Colombia to become the next big thing in MMJ.

ICC labs are already operating in other South American countries, and with this new development, they will get a stronger footing in the International market. According to company’s statement, the Colombian licensing conditions require them to have a social development scheme alongside the cultivation facility.

On the other hand, Colombian administration also has high ambitions with their MMJ operations. They want to fulfill 45% global need of MMJ this year. They are expecting to achieve this feat with increased exports to neighboring countries of Peru, Argentina, Mexico and also Canada.

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Legalized MMJ operations in the country are expanding with the time. Another MMJ company from Canada has started to cultivate both THC and non-THC strains of MMJ at a small site in Rionegro. Moreover, a Colombian MMJ firm with the help of foreign investment is going to set up a development and research facility in the country.

However, the small-scale unlicensed farmers will remain in the danger to get persecuted by the country’s infamous war on drugs. With big players seizing all the opportunities, it looks like nothing is going to change for peasants and farmers living in the countryside.

Small cultivators are demanding to get a fair share in the legal economy associated with the medicinal cannabis. Even though Colombia has made it compulsory for big MMJ companies to invest in social schemes in order to get the operating license. These social programs are very similar to what we call marijuana equity programs in the US.

But still there is a big difference between becoming a key player in the MMJ industry and reaping some of its benefits. With this disparity in mind, the small local producers have formed an association with the name “National Coordinator of Coca, Poppy and Marijuana Cultivators (COCCAM)”. The group is recording its protest over the government’s policy of subjugating local farmers and giving more opportunities to the giants of the industry, particularly the foreign ones.

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Last month, one local representative of COCCAM got shot by a Colombian solider while collecting a small crop of Coca from his farm. A Latin American news agency reported that the deceased farmer was cooperating with the national program to substitute illegal crops with legal harvest. That was not the first case of brutality against COCCAM members. The group has blamed the conservative parliament for this continued violence against them.

This crisis is showing the glimpses of the notorious war on drugs and shows that a lot has to done in order to have normalized MMJ operations in the country.

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