コロンビア、乾燥した大麻の花の輸出を合法化

【ボゴタＡＦＰ＝時事】コロンビアは２３日、医療用の乾燥した大麻の花の輸出を合法化した。大麻を含む繊維製品や食品の製造も認可した。（写真はコロンビア・ボヤカ県にあるクレバーリーブス社を訪問したイバン・ドゥケ・マルケス大統領＜左＞。同国大統領府提供）
　イバン・ドゥケ・マルケス大統領は、コロンビアで医療用大麻を栽培する１８の多国籍企業の一つであるクレバーリーブスで開催されたイベントで、「乾燥した花の輸出禁止」を解除する法案に署名した。
　コロンビアは大麻の国際市場において「主要なプレーヤーになりつつある」とドゥケ氏は述べた。
　世界有数のコカイン生産国で、大麻の生産も盛んなコロンビアは、２０１６年に医療用大麻の生産を合法化した。しかし、これまで輸出が認められていたのは大麻の抽出物のみで、花は認められていなかった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/07/26-11:56）

Colombia gave the green light Friday to export dried cannabis flowers for use in medical products in addition to allowing manufacturers to produce goods such as textiles or food containing the plant.
In a bold embrace of a booming global market, President Ivan Duque signed a decree ending the ban on the export of dried flower in an event organized at Clever Leaves, one of the 18 multinationals that grows medicinal cannabis in Colombia.
Colombia is coming in as a major player in the international market for cannabis, Duque said.
Colombia, the world's top producer of cocaine and which has major cannabis production, legalized the production of medical marijuana in 2016.
Until now, however, it was only allowed to export extracts of the plant, not its flowers.
Authorities had feared that exportation of the flowers would allow them to be diverted to the illegal side of the trade.
In a letter sent to Duque on July 14, the cannabis cultivation company Canamonte argued that a rule against exportation of the flowers prevented growers from accessing the largest and most profitable market segment of the medical cannabis industry.
Flowers, which concentrate the plant's medicinal and psychoactive compounds, may represent 53 percent of this market worldwide, according to Duque.
The new authorization also allows for the manufacture of non-psychoactive derivatives from the plant.
We are no longer only in pharmaceutical use. We are opening the space to do much more in cosmetics... food and beverages and even textiles, the president said.
Fabian Currea, Canamonte's director of cultivation, told AFP that ending the ban on exporting flowers gives us the chance to explore new markets and take advantage of the plant's low production costs in Colombia.
The rule also helps control the informal market for fraudulent products based on marijuana that has had a recent boom in Colombia, Currea said.
The government estimates that by 2024 the medical cannabis business could become a $64 billion industry.
Other countries in the region such as Uruguay, Ecuador and Peru have also legalized the production of marijuana for medicinal purposes.