In Brazil, An NGO Grows Medical Cannabis To Help Patients

Rio de Janeiro, Sept 24 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Sep, 2021 ) :Surrounded by barbed wire and an electric fence, marijuana plants flourish under the bright sun on a farm in a mountainous area outside Rio de Janeiro.

But this farm has nothing to do with drug trafficking. It belongs, in fact, to a pioneering Brazilian NGO engaged in the production of medical cannabis to help patients with seizures.

Margarete Brito, a lawyer by training, first started growing cannabis several years ago to relieve the seizures of her daughter Sofia, now 12, who is suffering from epilepsy.

After seeing her condition improve, Brito decided to help other patients too. So she founded the Medical Cannabis Research and Patient Support Association, or Apepi, that produces artisanal therapeutic oils made from cannabis to help patients with conditions similar to her daughter's.

That work has required a lot of effort, since growing marijuana remains illegal in Brazil.

"If we follow the letter of the law, nothing authorizes us to do that," Brito told AFP.

But she and her husband, Marcos Langenbach, were able to obtain an unprecedented judicial authorization to cultivate cannabis for medical purposes in 2016.

Today, their farm -- about two hours by car from the Brazilian capital -- has 2,000 plants growing there to help patients with severe autism, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.

And despite initial suspicion and pushback from some, Brito says the endeavor enjoys support in Brazil.

"We have real social legitimacy. That's what protects us," Brito said.

On a recent visit to the farm, which is protected by an electric fence and barbed wire, agricultural engineer Diogo Fonseca made his way among marijuana plants growing in large black pots and marked with the Names of their different varieties: Purple Wreck, Schanti, Doctor, Harle Tsu, Solar, CBG.

These plants are used to produce therapeutic oils that meet the individual needs of each patient, depending on whether they require a higher or lower dose of cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotropic substance with a relaxing effect.

Using a pocket microscope, the Fonseca examines each plant to assess the ideal time to pick.

In April, armed police with sniffer dogs raided the farm, after a person who had worked on renovating its laboratory reported Apepi to the authorities.

"A lot of people have prejudices," Brito said. "We explain how our project works to everyone, but this person believed that we were drug traffickers and informed against us," said Manoel Caetano, the farm's manager.

The police eventually realized the farm was a medical cannabis plantation, apologized and left, according to Brito.