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Marijuana Legality in Latin America: A Transformative Shift

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By: Juan Sebastian Chaves Gil

In recent years, Latin America has been shaken by a significant change: the legality of marijuana. This debate has triggered a series of events that have radically transformed the region. Join me on a journey through the different approaches and regulations of marijuana in different Latin American countries.

Uruguay: The Pioneer

A small country in the far south of South America was the pioneer. In 2013, it became the first country in the world to fully legalize the cultivation, sale and consumption of marijuana. The bold move was designed to undermine the black market and increase government control. Despite some initial criticism, the experiment has resulted in a decrease in drug-related crime and increased awareness of responsible consumption; the country allows cultivation, up to a maximum of six plants per person or household.

Mexico: The Giant Awakens

Mexico, a country with a long history of drug-related violence, made a major turnaround by legalizing marijuana in 2021. The new legislation allowed for home cultivation and personal consumption, overturning decades of drug war policies. This decision laid the groundwork for broader marijuana regulation, which is currently underway in the Mexican Congress. Legalization is seen as a way to weaken drug cartels and reduce drug-related violence. This measure is seen as a crucial step toward pacifying the country.

Colombia: The Andean Region on the Move

Colombia legalized medical marijuana in 2016. This decision made Colombia a major player in the production of cannabis for medical purposes. The regulation gave patients access to cannabinoid-based treatments and created a burgeoning industry in the country. Despite this, Colombia faces challenges in its industry, as there is no significant local production and no medicines based on Colombian cannabis have been developed. However, there is growing political debate about allowing the free production and marketing of Colombian cannabis, which would allow its full legalization for recreational and medical use.

Argentina: Progress on the horizon

Argentina, meanwhile, has been moving toward marijuana regulation. Although the debate is still ongoing, the South American country has taken significant steps toward legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational purposes. This process reflects the changing mentality and growing acceptance of marijuana in Argentine society.

Brazil: The Challenge of Legalization

Brazil, the largest nation in Latin America, faces significant challenges in legalizing marijuana. Although medical marijuana has advanced in some states, federal legislation remains restrictive. The debate regards regulation remains intense in a country with one of the largest populations of marijuana users in the region.

The legalization of marijuana in Latin America represents a momentous shift in the region’s politics and society. Each country has approached the issue in its own way, reflecting its own unique circumstances and challenges. Some countries have taken significant steps toward legalization, while others continue to fight drug trafficking and maintain strict anti-drug policies.

As a growing number of Latin American countries consider legalization, a dynamic landscape is emerging that promises to have a profound impact on the region’s politics, economy, and culture. As we watch this process unfold, it remains to be seen how the Latin American continent will address the challenges and opportunities that marijuana legalization presents for the future.



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Cannabis Can Help A Sore Throat

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There is a buzz about sore throats today. While they are most common in colder months, spring allergies bring the pain also. This is often due to postnasal drip, which is when mucus from the nose and sinuses drains down the back of the throat, causing irritation and a scratchy feeling. Overuse of the voice, like talking loudly or singing for long periods, can tire out and strain the muscles in your throat, causing them to feel sore. The good news is cannabis can help a sore throat.

RELATED: How Hemp Helps You Sleep

For those seeking natural alternatives to manage cold symptoms, cannabis is emerging as a promising option for throat irritation. Increasing research at medical center specifically targeting sore throats shows early insights. The data suggests cannabinoids and terpenes could offer symptom relief through their unique properties.

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Photo by Esther Kelleter / EyeEm/Getty Images

Cannabis contains compounds like THC and CBD, which studies indicate possess anti-inflammatory properties that may reduce throat swelling and irritation. Terpenes such as eucalyptol—found in some strains—are traditionally associated with decongestant effects, potentially easing respiratory discomfort. These components work synergistically to calm inflamed tissues, though their direct impact on sore throats requires further clinical validation.

Smoking cannabis while ill remains controversial due to potential throat irritation from heat and smoke. Instead, experts recommend gentler options:

  • Edibles/lozenges: THC or CBD-infused products bypass inhalation, delivering localized relief without aggravating the throat.

  • Cannabis tea: Warm beverages with cannabis extracts may soothe scratchy throats while providing hydration.

  • Tinctures: Sublingual CBD oils allow precise dosing and avoid respiratory irritation.

Beyond direct throat relief, cannabis may improve overall wellness during illness. THC’s appetite-stimulating properties can combat reduced hunger, while its relaxing effects might promote restorative sleep. CBD’s muscle-relaxing qualities could help alleviate the body aches often accompanying colds.

RELATED: How To Stop Coughing So Hard From Marijuana Smoke

While preliminary findings are encouraging, users should consult healthcare providers before combining cannabis with conventional cold medications due to potential interactions. Starting with low-dose CBD products may offer benefits without psychoactive effects. As legalization expands, more targeted research is expected to clarify cannabis’s role in respiratory health.

Innovative cannabis formulations—from throat-calming lozenges to anti-inflammatory teas—are redefining how we approach minor ailments. For those navigating cold season, these plant-based solutions present a compelling fusion of traditional herbal wisdom and modern cannabinoid science

 



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Cannabis and the Authoritarian State

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Cannabis and the Authoritarian State

Cannabis has been legal for longer than it has been illegal. Let that sink in for a minute. For thousands of years, humans cultivated and consumed cannabis freely across civilizations and continents. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that we witnessed a massive push to drive hemp and cannabis into the black market, primarily due to industrial competition from petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other industrial applications.

What makes cannabis so threatening to powerful interests? For starters, hemp and cannabis are highly versatile crops with over 50,000 different uses, from medicine to textiles to fuel. Even more remarkable is how this plant is hardwired to work with the human body through our endocannabinoid system—a biological network we didn’t even discover until the 1990s.

Perhaps most threatening of all is that cannabis is insanely easy to grow. This means that if the plant helps you with a particular physical ailment, you have the ability to grow your own medicine indefinitely. No insurance premiums, no wait lists, no pharmaceutical middlemen—just you cultivating your own healing directly from the earth.

Authoritarians do not like this, not one bit. When people can meet their own needs independently, power structures lose their grip. When citizens can think differently without permission, control systems begin to fail. So today, we’re going to look at the interesting relationship between authoritarianism and cannabis, and how this humble plant plays a key role in keeping you free.

We’ve already established the versatility of cannabis, but there’s another element that those old D.A.R.E. PSAs inadvertently reveal about what authoritarians think about cannabis. I’m talking, of course, about “behavior.” You see, in an authoritarian system, you and I are but cogs in the machine. We’re the expendables who should be proud to work ourselves to death for our “fearless leaders.”

This is precisely why certain ideas, philosophies, religions, movements, books, and substances are typically banned in authoritarian regimes. Take North Korea as an example: everything from the type of television citizens watch to the music they hear is a tightly spun spell designed to keep the populace in check. While they don’t have explicit laws against hemp (they actually grow it industrially), smoking psychoactive cannabis is strictly forbidden.

Contrast this with places like Malaysia, where you can get up to 5 years for possessing just 20 grams of cannabis, and even face the death penalty depending on the situation. These authoritarians don’t play around when it comes to cannabis because they know it affects the behavior of their populace in ways they can’t control.

The question becomes: what behavior do they fear so much that cannabis produces within the individual?

The answer is a critical mind. People who consume cannabis often begin to question their own belief systems. Most regular users undergo some transformation in their values and perspectives. Cannabis has a unique way of helping people see beyond cultural programming and think outside established paradigms. It can make the familiar strange and the strange familiar—a psychological state that’s antithetical to authoritarian control.

This independent thinking runs counter to the narrative of authoritarians who wish to maintain a tight grip on social consciousness. If even 10% of a population begins to pivot in their behavior within a regime, it can have massive ripple effects. Just look at cannabis in the US—it went from being demonized to being embraced by the majority in less than 80 years, despite massive propaganda efforts.

For authoritarians, psychoactive cannabis isn’t primarily a threat to public health and wellbeing—it’s a threat to the health and wellbeing of authoritarianism itself. When people start thinking differently, they start living differently. When they start living differently, they start demanding different. And that’s the beginning of the end for any system built on unquestioning obedience.

Beyond the threat to thought control, there’s another reason why drugs in general remain illegal: the state can use prohibition as a weapon against the populace. This isn’t conspiracy theory—it’s documented history.

Take Nixon’s war on drugs. His domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, later admitted: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” Nixon essentially placed cannabis on the Controlled Substances Act because he needed an excuse to shut down anti-war protests and target Black communities.

Since hippies and anti-war protesters were smoking “freedom grass,” making it illegal would circumvent their freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and more importantly—turn free citizens into state property. It’s a win-win if you’re an authoritarian looking to silence dissent.

Then there’s the whole “boogeyman” complex that prohibition creates. We’re told “drug dealers” are roaming the streets preying on innocents, giving them “marihuanas” so they can do vile things. What the government conveniently leaves out is how the banks these “dealers” use to launder their money remain untouched. They don’t mention the shadier dealings of law enforcement either—like running guns into Mexico (eventually leading to the death of one of their own), or spraying poison on crops, killing and hospitalizing people because, you know…”Drugs are bad!”

Authoritarians cannot let go of the value that keeping the most widely used illicit substance in the world illegal provides them. This explains why the US hasn’t federally legalized cannabis despite nearly 80% of Americans supporting some form of legalization. It’s not because they don’t have enough research or that they’re genuinely concerned about public health—it’s because prohibition gives them all the privileges of violating constitutional rights while siphoning money into their coffers.

Drug prohibition creates a perpetual enemy that can never be defeated, allowing endless justification for surveillance, militarized police, asset forfeiture, and expansion of state power. What authoritarian could resist such a convenient tool?

Cannabis is a plant. You can’t make nature illegal—it’s counter to the human experience. When governments attempt to criminalize a naturally occurring organism that humans have cultivated and used for thousands of years, they reveal the absurdity of their position and the limits of their authority.

While the United States isn’t a full-on authoritarian state (yet), the truth is that many authoritarian elements have played out over the years. You only need to look as far as the war on drugs to see how the state utilizes prohibition as a weapon to their advantage. From no-knock raids to civil asset forfeiture to mass incarceration, drug laws have erected a parallel legal system where constitutional protections often don’t apply.

The fundamental truth is that cannabis is not only versatile and medicinal, it gives you back your autonomy in multiple ways. It helps you think for yourself. It allows you to grow your own medicine. It connects you with a plant that humans have used ceremonially, medicinally, and industrially throughout our history. And this autonomy is something authoritarians cannot stand—free individuals who know how to think beyond the narratives they’re fed.

Cannabis doesn’t just get you high—it offers a perspective from which the absurdities of prohibition become glaringly obvious. Perhaps this is why, as state after state legalizes, we’re witnessing the slow but steady unraveling of one of the most enduring authoritarian policies in American history.

So if you count yourself among those who value freedom of thought and bodily autonomy, who believe that nature doesn’t require government permission, and who understand that true liberty includes the right to explore your own consciousness—well, maybe it’s time to toke one up for freedom!

 

LEGALIZING CANNABIS IS NOT ENOUGH, READ ON..

LEAGLIZATION OF CANNABIS

WHY LEGALIZING CANNABIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING…



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As cannabis consumer tastes evolve, industry must look beyond potency

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(This is a contributed guest column. To be considered as an MJBizDaily guest columnist, please submit your request here.)

Chris O’Ferrell (Courtesy photo)

For years, the cannabis industry has been shaped by a singular focus: THC potency.

Store menus highlight percentages, consumers chase high numbers, and many strains have been bred to maximize THC content at the expense of other characteristics.

But is that truly what makes marijuana special?

Beyond THC levels, branding, packaging and promotions heavily influence consumer choices.

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The classic $200-per-ounce deal has evolved into a $100 mix-and-match special, allowing consumers to explore a variety of terpene profiles and effects.

Just as craft beer enthusiasts appreciate curated tasting flights, cannabis enthusiasts now seek diversity in their experiences.

Keeping up with industry trends while

Read full article on Marijuana Business Daily



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