Chile plants cannabis for medicinal use

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Chile plants cannabis for medicinal use

29 October 2014

In most countries in the world, if you asked the local authorities for permission to grow 750 cannabis plants in a residential area of the capital city, you would probably end up in trouble.

But in Chile, the state has just agreed to such a project. The cannabis will be planted on 29 October in La Florida, a district of Santiago. It will be harvested next April and turned into an oil which will be used as a painkiller for 200 cancer patients.

It is the first project of its kind with state backing anywhere in Latin America. Much of the recent debate in the region over cannabis use has centred on Uruguay, which this year became the first country in the world to legalize the cultivation, sale and consumption of the drug.

But in Chile, the authorities have taken a different approach, permitting the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes only.

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