Caribbean & Central America - July 2023

In May Costa Rica’s right-of-centre Partido Progreso Social Democrático (PPSD) government led by President Rodrigo Chaves announced that it had issued its first licence for medical cannabis to a local firm, Azul Wellness. The announcement comes just over a year after Costa Rica legalised the drug for medicinal purposes and for the production of hemp [SSR-22-04], becoming the second country in Central America to do so after Panama in October 2021, although cannabis cultivation and sale for recreational purposes still remains prohibited.

On 15 May Costa Rica’s minister for agriculture & livestock (MAG), Víctor Carvajal, issued the licence for Azul Wellness, whose president is José Álvaro Jenkins, head of Costa Rica’s private sector lobby Unión Costarricense de Cámaras y Asociaciones del sector Empresarial Privado (UCCAEP), and which has partnered with US private equity firm Merida Capital Holdings, to develop its first project in an area of 800m² in Filadelfia town, Guanacaste province. As of 15 May, MAG had authorised nine permits, eight for the cultivation and processing of hemp and another for psychoactive or medicinal cannabis. MAG is currently evaluating another licence for medical cannabis and two more requests for authorisation of planting and processing of hemp.

The law permitting cannabis for medical and therapeutic use and of hemp for industrial and food-related aims was promulgated in March 2022 by Chaves’ predecessor Carlos Alvarado (2018-2022), of the centre-left Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC). In September 2022, President Chaves signed the final regulations which allow authorities to issue licences for the production and industrialisation of cannabis for medical and therapeutic purposes, among other things. The government is spinning the new regulations as part of efforts to promote social and economic development – echoing the line of Zoila Rosa Volio, an agronomist and former legislator (2018-2022), who had spearheaded efforts to legalise cannabis for medicinal purposes and hemp. Volio had argued that cultivation of hemp in particular would help reactivate the productive sector which, like other sectors, was affected by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Cannabis plants destroyed

According to the most recent (March 2023) annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) by the US State Department, Costa Rican authorities reported destroying over 499,960 cannabis plants from October 2021– August 2022, a 20% increase over the previous year.

New law against organised crime

On 29 May Costa Rica’s 57-member unicameral legislature approved a new legislative bill against organised crime which was promulged the next day by President Chaves. The initiative is part of efforts by the Chaves government to tackle rising crime and homicides after the country registered record homicides last year. With little sign that crime rates are dropping, the president also recently dispensed with his security minister, Jorge Torres, replacing him with Mario Zamora, a former security minister under former president Laura Chinchilla (Partido Liberación Nacional, 2010-2014) [SSR-23-06]

While the PPSD has just ten legislative seats, the bill received strong cross-party support, being approved in the second debate with 47 votes in favour and just two against. It amends two pieces of legislation: the organic law of the judiciary and the law on specialised jurisdiction on crime. It seeks to improve the redaction of existing rules regarding the distribution of competencies in issues of organised crime, clarifying which cases should be dealt with under ordinary jurisdiction and which fall under the special jurisdiction dealing with organised crime. Other changes include a provision doubling the amount of time that those accused of organised crime can be held on a preventative basis, to 24 months, as well as stipulating that cases involving organised crime are public acts and cannot be dealt with as private prosecutions – thereby ensuring that the responsibility of prosecuting organised crime remains with the state.