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Marijuana activists push legalization of medical cannabis in Costa Rica
Regions
Publication date:
When you hear the phrase “cannabis advocate,” you might picture someone with wild hair and a Bob Marley T-shirt. But Gerald Murray is nothing like that. At a news conference on Tuesday morning, he was smartly groomed and wore a blazer.
His organization, Marihuana Medicinal Costa Rica, had prepared a traditional panel, complete with slideshow, hors d’oeuvres, and a pitcher of water.
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Pien Metaal, who follows Latin American drug law reform for the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute, told The Tico Times in an email that legalizing medical marijuana in Costa Rica “would clearly send a message that can spark a debate in the region.”
“Of course, the debate should not just be about medicinal use,” Metaal wrote, “since in fact recreational use is the largest actually existing phenomena, [for] which simple possession and use are being criminalized and prosecuted.”