Colombia's Misak: The first indigenous community licensed to produce medical cannabis

The Misak community, in the Department of Cauca, Colombia, will be the first indigenous nation to grow medical cannabis after receiving a license from the Colombian Ministry of Justice on May 15. The Cauca region, in the western zone of the country, is the area where most of Colombia's illegal marijuana is produced, according to the newspaper El Tiempo.

The license granted by the Colombian government gives the Misak permission to produce non-psychoactive cannabis, with no limit on the number of plants they can plant. In addition, the license permits the production of seeds for planting and derivatives of medical cannabis. Harvesting will begin in early 2021.

According to statements given to El Tiempo by Misak indigenous leader Liliana Pechene, the region has been stigmatized "for its illicit crops and the conflict, but the plant is something that we indigenous peoples have used as medicine for ages. Thus, for us this project is a great challenge, but also a source of hope for the department, and an opportunity to work for peace".

To exploit the license the Misak have launched the Misak Manasr Indigenous Pharma Company, which, in the Misak language, means "immortal plant that connects the human being with the medicinal being." In addition to cannabis, the Misaks' jaibaná (healers) work with other medicinal plants, such as tobacco and coca.

Elders' statement

The news, however, has not sat well with the entire Misak community. The publication Pueblos En Camino features a statement from the "Misuna People Ancestral Authorities" in which the cultivation of medical marijuana is strongly criticised:

«(…) In all the territories of the Misak people, the intrusion of single crops, or forms of external economies that affect and harm the balance of our ancestral, indigenous Misak lands, among them the cultivation of cannabis, will NOT be allowed".

The statement concludes "categorically rejecting initiatives that generate imbalance for the people, such as the marijuana plantation project, and its industrialisation or transformation for commercial and profit purposes, as the so-called "Misak Manasr Indigenous Pharma Company seeks to do".

The Pueblos En Camino brief also accuses the "indigenous company" of really being a "local subsidiary of Pharmacielo", a multinational company with Canadian capital; the "Antioquia aristocracy", and the newspaper El Tiempo, owned by the Santos family".

Colombia, from drug trafficking to legalisation

Without getting into the controversy over the legitimacy of the Misaks' future venture, the truth is that Colombia has placed itself at the forefront of the cannabis industry in South America. Since the regulation of medical cannabis in 2016, Colombia has become the "Canada of the South" and a supplier of the plant for export to North America and the rest of the world.

Pharmacielo was the first company to obtain a license to exploit medical marijuana in 2016. On its website, Pharmacielo claims to have 260 hectares of crops and to produce 5.5 tons of cannabis flowers per year, both medical and recreational, making the company the "world's largest licensed producer".