Yahoo – AFP,
March 30, 2017
Buenos Aires (AFP) - Argentina's Senate voted unanimously to legalize medical marijuana, joining the lower house and setting the country on course to become the latest to relax its laws on pot.
Argentina is set to join Uruguay, Colombia, Chile and Mexico in legalizing medical marijuana (AFP Photo/FILIPPO MONTEFORTE) |
Buenos Aires (AFP) - Argentina's Senate voted unanimously to legalize medical marijuana, joining the lower house and setting the country on course to become the latest to relax its laws on pot.
President
Mauricio Macri is all but certain to sign the bill, which garnered an unusual
level of cross-party support and was applauded by patients and their families.
A group of
mothers with sick children burst into tearful applause in the Senate as
lawmakers voted 58-0 to pass the bill.
"This
is a dream fulfilled, an immense happiness because it will bring solace to
patients," said Maria Laura Alasi, whose four-year-old daughter Josefina
suffers from West syndrome, a form of epilepsy that causes her to have dozens
of seizures a day.
The new law
lifts a ban on importing cannabis oil and allows Argentines to buy it with a
prescription.
It stops
short of allowing home-grown marijuana, something young patients' families had
demanded.
"I
have faith the senators will find a way around that," said Alasi. "A
lot of mothers are already growing their own."
Latin
America has seen a major political shift on pot in recent years.
In 2013,
Argentina's neighbor Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully
legalize marijuana at every stage of production, sale and consumption -- though
users must be registered.
Colombia,
Chile and Mexico have all legalized the cultivation and use of marijuana for
medical and scientific purposes.
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