Hemp and Marijuana Legality in Costa Rica

Although hemp and marijuana are both classified biologically as cannabis, they are basically cousins and not twin sisters. They differ in significant ways which is crucial for the legalization of one or the other.

Cannabis sativa is the species to which they both belong but the main difference between hemp and marijuana is their psychoactive component: tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). There are hundreds more compounds, also known as cannabinoids but to understand today’s topic we are going to focus on this one.

In other words, hemp usually has 0.3% or less THC, meaning hemp-derived products don’t contain enough THC to create the “high” traditionally associated with marijuana.

Is Cannabis Legal in Costa Rica?

No, at the moment neither hemp nor marijuana of any type are legal in the country. We know this may seem shocking since the World Health Organization (WHO) has already confirmed that both Hemp and CBD-derived products do not contain any psychoactive effects. Cannabidiol (CBD) is another compound that needs its own blog since there is no international control for substancessubstances with a level below 0.2% THC, let us know in the comments if you would like to learn more about its legality in Costa Rica.

You may be wondering why cannabis has been in the media so often lately. This is due to one bill that has been before congress for approval since 2019 and this year they have created an additional one

Bill 21.388

Led by the Representative Zoila Volio, this Bill was created in 2019 and it has gone through a long process. Volio is an Engineer and she has fought non-stop for the approval of this bill, she proposed that without hemp, we are wasting many job opportunities since it can be used to manufacture textiles, food, medicines, seeds, oils, biofuels, and cosmetics, among others. In addition to that, the geographical factors that favor the cultivation of coffee are very similar to those that Cannabis needs, which makes Costa Rica an strategic point for its production.

Bill 21.388 would regulate the cultivation of medicinal Cannabis  and hemp production in Costa Rica, recreational use would not be allowed. Hemp-derived products were trending in 2020 in the country and I had the opportunity to interview Volio in December when I was working in the education department of this industry.

At that time we discussed how important it was to keep pushing the topic among all citizens because the Executive Branch, meaning the President, did not include the bill with the ones that were going to be processed. That meant a delay of 8 months and here we are now. Tomorrow August 17 of 2021 the Representatives of the Legislature will finally, have the opportunity to either add changes to the bill or to move it forward to the next approval stage.

According to Volio’s timeline the next steps start tomorrow at the plenary debate and it is possible this stage can last days. We will closely monitor the situation and report on any news as we receive it. Then the bill goes back to the Environment Committee where they will either accept or reject whatever motions the Representatives added in the previous chapter. Those two phases are done twice until they update the document to include the proposed motions and then it is ready to go through the first and second debate, and finally it should be signed by the President.

The plenary sessions are the discussions the Representatives (“Diputadas” and “Diputados”) have at the Assembly when they are going to either approve or reject a new law.

However, in addition to the Executive Branch and the Ministry of Health,  the Ministry of Agriculture are also opposed to this bill. These two institutions would have to get involved if Bill 21.388 gets approved. Unfortunately in the past they have rejected it because according to them the State does not have the resources for the control of production, nor commercialization of cannabis and its consumption would require to ensure that it does not end up affecting public health and security.

The President has changed his mind a few times since 2019, in contrast different political parties agree on approving this Bill. Parties such as Liberación Nacional, Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) and Unidad Social Cristiana along with Independent Representatives. Still, it cannot be predicted how long it will take for them to discuss the project since it will depend on the number of motions presented by other parties such as Nueva República, one of the religious groups that are opposed to everything that has to do with cannabis.

The other Bill

Volio’s Bill does not include recreational use neither individual consumption, what she proposed is to grant licenses A and B for cannabis cultivation and marketing, respectively. Those licenses will be granted to large corporations or at least to the companies that can afford them, and to regulate them that is where the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture have to of course work with their resources.

If you did not know, PAC is the political party of President Alvarado and we have Presidential elections on February 2022. PAC also presented a new bill on April of this year, led by Representative Enrique Sánchez the difference with Bill 21.388 is that it includes the recreational use of marijuana and what they have in common is that both bills pretend to improve the economy by providing new jobs, generating new taxes and promoting the medical use of cannabis.

Two Presidential candidates of the same party (PAC) have declared their support to decriminalize the recreational use of marijuana. If that is a coincidence or not, we do not know but what is crystal clear is that the bill that is closest to being approved this year is Bill 21.388 and with that the country will have to opportunity to access an industry that is projected to reach $14 billionon the global market by 2025.

With the risk of sounding like a broken record, we want to highlight one more time that nothing is written in stone. This means that there are no fixed deadlines for the approval of Bill 21.388 as you can see it has been going around for almost two years, on the other hand it seems like the political will for the bill to advance exists.

We are going to keep the community updated with any details we learn, this is just the first of many articles we have prepared regarding Cannabis. If you have any question or comment please feel free to add them here.