Azores: Judicial Police seize CBD oil intended for patients

Several patients on the island of São Miguel, in the Azores, are currently without access to cannabidiol oil (CBD) that they use for their pathologies, including children with epilepsy and people with Parkinson's. 

The Judiciary Police (PJ) seized a box with 60 bottles of CBD oil in the GatiStore, a shop/cafe in Ponta Delgada that sells horticultural products, hemp derivatives like CBD creams and oils, and some paraphernalia like bongs, grinders or rolling papers.

Filipe Rego, owner of the store, told Cannapress that PJ entered the GatiStore last Tuesday, April 3, at about 10:15 am, when an order from Slovenia with CBD oil was being delivered. of brand "CBD Cures".

“They made this delivery to us at the store and soon after, a woman and three men came in who identified themselves as PJ agents, asking not to open the order and asking for the store owner”, said Filipe Rego. Later, two GNR agents also came with a dog.

The CBD oils that Filipe received at GatiStore were accompanied by the appropriate tests and certificates that comply with the European legislation in force.

“They explained to me that my package had been marked for a routine canine inspection at the airport and asked for my permission to inspect it. I accepted and we went with the orders (three volumes) for PJ. They gave me a statement for the search, which I signed, and I handed over the invoices and transport documents I had. I cooperated in the opening of the crates that contained the CBD oils, among several other items that were soon put aside to carry out narcotic tests, among which the brand's cosmetic products Annabis, cookies, chocolate drinks and hemp lollipops”.

The PJ carried out a rapid drug detection test and only CBD oils were positive for “Liamba”, and 30 packages of “CBD Cure” with 3.88% of CBD and 30 packages of 10% of CBD were seized, worth more than a thousand euros. Filipe was made a defendant for drug trafficking and went to court the next morning, accompanied by his lawyer, for questioning by the Public Ministry.

Filipe handed over all the invoices and documents he had about the CBD oil and also about the other material seized. “I was told that the oils were going to be sent for analysis in the laboratory and that the process could take about six months. If the result of the oils is positive, I can be accused of crime or of misdemeanor. In case it is considered an administrative offence, the process is transferred to the Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction (CDT)”. Filipe ironically: “I didn't realize, maybe they advise me on methadone to free me from the addiction to CBD oil…”.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I thought about my clients with reservations already made, who need CBD oil to have a better quality of life ”[/perfectpullquote]

At the Court, Filipe was also offered the possibility of requesting the suspension of the process, if he was accused, taking into account that he has no criminal record and that the seized products have the respective invoices. “Even so, if I ask for suspension, I have to pay 150 euros, which I don't have, or do XNUMX hours of community work, which means spending even more hours away from my family.

Filipe founded Gatistore in 2013 to try to get some more income in parallel with his work at full-time, since he has a daughter with cerebral palsy and almost no state aid. The wife does not work, so she can accompany her daughter full time.

There are more and more people looking for CBD in the Azores
Filipe's biggest concern at the moment is the patients to whom he sold CBD oil, who suffer from pathologies as diverse as Parkinson's, anxiety, thyroid problems or epilepsy. “I thought about my customers with reservations already made, who need CBD oil to have a better quality of life”.

Filipe does not know if they will return all the products that were seized (approximately 1700 euros) and also has doubts about how the analyzes and calculations of the THC percentages will be carried out: “They only return the material to me if the laboratory results confirm that the values ​​are those permitted by law and even then it is uncertain. But will they add up the 60 bottles with 0.02% each and say that all together gives 1,2% THC? Will I have to go through all this again whenever a dog sniffs my parcels? For now, I have been banned from marketing CBD oils and I will respect that decision because I have no other alternative”, says Filipe Rego, who stresses, however, that all the intervention of the PJ and GNR agents was “extremely peaceful”.

The situation turned out to be ridiculous, as one of the agents really liked the Annabis “Hemp Gel” cream, which is similar to Voltaren, and told Filipe that he might have won a customer, as he wanted to try it.

Filipe says that more and more customers are looking for CBD oil. “We have several clients with different pathologies, from Parkinson's, thyroid problems, arthritis, anxiety, sleep disorders, nausea, cancer, autism, among others. Just yesterday, for example, we had a visit from a person from the Autism Association of the Azores, who came to look for CBD oil for his son”.

PJ and Infarmed do not speak
Renato Furtado, one of the coordinators of the Ponta Delgada Judiciary Police, spoke to Cannapress on the phone, but said he could not comment on ongoing investigations or on this specific matter. “The PJ's investigations are framed in the Criminal Procedure Code and the definition of an inquiry can either be a situation that we already know is actually a crime or it can also be a situation in which there is a need to clarify whether it is a crime. The investigation is directed by the Public Ministry and it is carried out by the PJ. In the absence of a press release approved by the National Directorate of the PJ, we cannot comment on the ongoing investigations. The case you are referring to was not the subject of any communiqué approved by the Director General, so I have nothing to say about this specific matter”, explained Furtado.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”While Infarmed does not have the official recognition of an entity that carries out clinical trials and on which it can pronounce, it becomes extremely difficult to take a position in this sense”[/perfectpullquote]

For its part, Infarmed told Cannapress that it will not make official statements on the topic of “cannabis” until the bills for the legalization of medical cannabis are voted on, but said it was available to clarify doubts or other types of questions.

On the CBD issue, Hugo Grilo, press officer, said that Infarmed has “a protocol with the Tax Authority (AT) in which each time an order is identified with a certain substance that the AT cannot identify — and that can actually be a substance that can be considered a medicine — AT always withholds orders and sends daily listings to obtain Infarmed's opinion. However, from what I have noticed regarding CBD, it is not even registered as a medicine or as an active substance, and if I am not mistaken, it even enters the sphere of the General Directorate of Food and Veterinary (DGAV) and not that of Infarmed” .

Hugo Grilo also confesses that, in relation to CBD, there may be confusion with other components of cannabis that already have an image of 'bad reputation', but stresses that there is a lack of clarification from other entities regarding the various components of cannabis. “As long as Infarmed does not have the official recognition of an entity that carries out clinical trials and on which it can comment, it becomes extremely difficult to take a position in this regard”.

Asked about the difficult situation that many patients are in because they do not have access to CBD, Hugo Grilo appeals for these people to get in touch with Infarmed: “Contact us whenever possible with these situations to, eventually, create up to within the AT itself, an orientation such as: 'well, every time a product with these characteristics appears, Infarmed has always authorized it, so we are not going to say anything to Infarmed anymore, we will simply authorize the entry of this product', he concludes .

All situations of blocking CBD products must then be reported to the Infarmed Information Center, via the email cimi@infarmed.pt.