Agriculture Technology National Institute will manage the first marijuana experimental field

(Photo: banner from GLFI announced the agreement with Jujuy governor, Gerardo Morales)

Buenos Aires, February 19th. The Government published today its Order 361/2019 authorizing the pilot plan of cannabis production for medical use.

The experimental field will install in Finca El Pongo, a14,000 hectares station sited in Jujuy Province, in the North of the country, where the experimentation and production will lead by an official company Cannabis Avatara Sociedad del Estado (Cannava) and the Agriculture Technology National Institute (INTA).

In the first year, a 35 hectares plot will be planted with 40 different varieties of Cannabis sativa, provided by Green Leaf Farm International LLC (GLFI). It is expected to obtain between 1,000 to 2,000 kilograms of biomass per hectare. The protocol indicates that this production will be only used for scientific, medical and therapeutic objectives.

According to the protocol, GLFI has seven years of experience producing medical cannabis and is based in the Nevada state, where cannabis is legal since 2000.

The president of State Society Cannava is Gerardo Gaston Morales, one of the son of Jujuy governor, Gerardo Morales, a heavy supporter and ally of President Mauricio Macri. This coincidence untied a political scandal since the opposition to the governor said they fear that Jujuy province will turn in a “narcoestado” and they promise to bring the case to the Justice.

“The Jujuy’s government are militarizing the zone and turn a farm run by small farmers into a private drug production farm”, representative Alejandra Cejas, from the Peronist Party, said.

Morales Jr. defended itself saying that the cannabis project will have zero cost to the taxpayers and that all the investment will be done by GLFI. It is expected that, finally, a 1,000 hectares will be dedicated to the medical cannabis production five years later that this first stage is concluded.