50 Members of Parliament Urge President Boric to Reclassify Cannabis and End Persecution of Patients

Original article: 50 diputadas y diputados piden al Presidente Boric cambiar clasificación del cannabis y poner fin a la persecución de pacientes

In a bid to ensure the proper enforcement of Law N° 21.575 (Anti-Drug Law) and to stop the criminal prosecution of cannabis patients and users, 50 members of parliament from the ruling party, led by Ana María Gazmuri (Humanist Action) and Jorge Brito (Broad Front), have sent a letter to President Boric requesting his «direct intervention» in the effective implementation of the legislation and the reclassification of cannabis under the Regulation of Law 20.000.

“With just one month left in President Boric’s term, patients and users of medical cannabis continue to be criminalized, persecuted, imprisoned, and prosecuted,” warned parliamentarian Ana María Gazmuri.

The legislator reminded that “a law from the Republic, Law 21.575, approved by Congress and enacted by President Boric, remains unenforced due to the lack of protocols for police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Moreover, since the beginning of this term, we have been requesting the government to align the classification of cannabis.”

“What is the consequence of this? The prosecution continues to act in the same punitive manner due to the current classification of cannabis,” emphasized Deputy Gazmuri.

Deputy Jorge Brito stated that “the law is clear; we must all respect it. 50 members of parliament have sent this letter to the President of the Republic to ensure that the law is respected and that there is a change in the cannabis classification, fulfilling President Boric’s commitment to end the criminalization of cannabis users in Chile.”

Legal Uncertainty

In their letter, the lawmakers warn that the current situation “is creating legal uncertainty, an unequal application of the law, and inefficient use of state resources in drug policy and public safety.”

Thus, they first request the assurance of proper law enforcement regarding medicinal self-cultivation, stating that “it is imperative to establish clear, mandatory, and coordinated protocols between the police and the Public Ministry,” as in practice “raids, detentions, and unnecessary criminal proceedings against users and patients persist.”

Secondly, the letter outlines that the reclassification of cannabis in the regulation of Law 20.000 is a necessary condition for the effective implementation of the law, urging the “urgent harmonization of the cannabis classification… by transferring it from the list in Article 1 to the list in Article 2 of Supreme Decree N° 867.”

In this regard, the legislators caution that “keeping cannabis on the Article 1 list constitutes a regulatory inconsistency that facilitates criminal interpretations, which are corrected by the Supreme Court and have made the law inapplicable in numerous cases.”

The Citizen