California Marijuana

Rodrigo Chaves, the recently elected President of Costa Rica, marked his first 100 days in office this week by announcing an initiative to legalize recreational cannabis. The president’s announcement to send the initiative to Congress for discussion came on top of reassurances that his administration was nearly ready to publish the regulations for medical cannabis, which were approved by the previous Congress. “We really did not expect this last announcement about [recreational] cannabis,” said Guillermo Argüello, the president of the Costa Rican Hemp Association. According to Argüello, Costa Rica still has a long road ahead before it will be in a position to compete with the existing Latin American markets. “If we compare Costa Rica with Latin American markets we are at a disadvantage because we have not yet begun to plant cannabis,” he said. “We do not have large tracts of land. The pandemic and external factors such as the increase in the price of oil and the war in Ukraine hav...