Growing Your Own Cannabis Plants in Costa Rica, a Law Perspective

Welcome to our Cannabis Series, if you miss the first blog click here to read it. Today’s topic is: growing your own plants in Costa Rica, is it legal?

With the changes in the regulations regarding cannabis in different countries of the world the question has been raising in Costa Rica as well, we know that selling marijuana is forbidden here, however, what about planting your own cannabis?

Two faces of the coin

Costa Rica has been dealing with cannabis activists in the last few years, they have helped to develop precedents in our legislation that could be a ray of light for the ones who are not so sure about growing their own cannabis, however, we have different criteria regarding this matter, and even the high judges have had some contradictory sentences. These two positions leave the people in Costa Rica with two faces of the same coin:

It is not a crime

The resolution Nº 00481 – 2018 of the Third Court of Justice (Sala Tercera de Justicia) which is the highest court in Penal Law within the country, is the precedent from which it can be deducted that growing your own cannabis plants in Costa Rica is not a crime, however, some aspects must be taken into consideration.

● First, the quantity, if you are growing cannabis for your own consumption the amount of plants must be reasonable, a single person will not need eight plants, and, even if our legal system does not establish the exact quantity, the Third Court have aforementioned the Colombian law in the resolution Nº 00074 – 2001, which does not take as a crime two plants per person, as this quantity cannot possibly be used for sale.

● Second, insignificance criteria, the law forbids certain drugs and plants because they affect public health, this is directly reflected on selling the product and even a small quantity can be considered as a product to sell, as “contrabando hormiga” (selling small portions in order to avoid detention), however, it is easy to prove that an small amount of plants is for self use, with a laboratory test for example.

● Third, it is mandatory to prove that the plants are not for sale, this can be proven by neighbors’ statements (i.e. that no one suspicious entered the house or left under the effects of any drug).

It is a crime

The other face of the coin can be found in several resolutions of the same Court of Justice, we will use as an example the resolution Nº 00074 – 2001 and the “Ley

sobre estupefacientes, sustancias psicotrópicas, drogas de uso No Autorizado, actividades Conexas, legitimación de capitales y financiamiento al terrorismo” that is the national law regarding substances. The Third Court of Justice has stated that only people with special licenses can grow cannabis plants (such as training for drug detection dogs) that because the article 58 of the previously mentioned law forbids expressively growing drug plants, this includes the Cannabis plant. The judges even make an extra mention to the different aspects that must be complied regarding this drug, such as having a protocol to get rid off it by the police.

With the two faces covered the only possible conclusion, based on the law and in different resolutions is that growing marihuana plants is not legal, however, if it is a low quantity, if you comply with the insignificance criteria and self use can be proven, a person should be able to plant this type of Cannabis, authorities can still seize the harvest, but it is very unlikely that the person will face jail time.

Regarding CBD plants

At this moment, both THC Cannabis plants and CBD “Cañamo” plants are not expressively accepted within the country, however, with CBD plants the government has started issuing licenses to plant and research this kind of plant, we encounter then two challenges with this topic, one is the growing of the plant, and the other, people selling products with CBD.

Growing the plant

The general usage of the law and sentences regarding this is the same as with Cannabis, however, the Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) has started growing these plants to research in which parts of the country they would grow better, they are required, however, to share this information with the public as a part of the agreement that let them plant (in 2020).

In addition to the public disclosure of the findings, these plants must have a low THC percent (less than 0.3%) and a high level of CBD, as they are different and work for different things (for example, one can be used for epilepsy and other for stress). This first plantation comes in hand with the Bill 21.388 (which is being discussed by our legislators) this is the first project that has ever considered a regulation regarding CBD and THC plants in the country.

Selling products with CBD

The Health Ministry has issued several articles and warnings regarding these products. As part of these warnings several pages have been created to report products or to check if the sanitary registry is valid and if the product is permitted by the Ministry, such resources are:

To check the sanitary registry

To report illegal selling: dac.denuncias@misalud.go.cr

With all the information and resolutions about growing Cannabis plants in Costa Rica we can only conclude that it is not strictly forbidden, however, some requirements must be met and, not less important, the person who will be willing to take this risk should start collecting evidence of their personal usage of the drug as soon or before their plantation starts and never share their harvest with others, free of charge or charging.

In our next blog for the Cannabis series, we will discuss in depth CBD products and their legality, make sure to come back to our website and leave us your comments.