Cannabis Seeds – Legislative Framework VS Market Demand

Due to the need to integrate Portuguese law into European demands, in 2003, the tenth amendment was made to Decree-Law 15/93, of 22 January, which approved the legal regime applicable to the traffic and consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, adding the cannabis seeds not intended for sowing. 

The purpose of the law adds cannabis seeds not intended for sowing under CN code 1207 99 91 and the substance PMMA to the tables annexed to Decree-Law 15/93. These requirements arise because, in recent years, there has been an increase in demand and the consequent availability in the national market of foodstuffs and phytotherapic products whose composition is the plant Cannabis sativa, its seeds, extracts, oils, or just its chemical substances alone, such as cannabidiol (CBD) or other cannabinoids. This measure was promoted with the aim of guaranteeing the protection of consumers' interests, including good practices in the food trade, in the demand for health protection, a desideratum that could not neglect the legal framework of the cannabis plant in accordance with the law. 15/93.

Photo: Tommy L. Gomez / Sweet Seeds

We should try to understand the distinction between seeds intended for sowing and those not intended for sowing. The former are intended for planting and cultivation, while the latter are used by producers to integrate the final product intended for the consumer (for example in food products, cosmetics, energy supplements, etc.). As for seeds for sowing, European legislation requires a very strict framework, through Council Directive 2002/53/EC of 13 June 2002, which concerns the common catalog of varieties of agricultural plant species. But, in this part, as for the cannabis plant, whose varieties exceed the value of 0,2% of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), its prohibition is foreseen in the Anti-Drug Law, being prohibited the production and cultivation of the cannabis plant by intended for human use only, as it is considered a dangerous substance.

After decades in which the prohibitionist law was in force, prohibiting research and investigation, in February 2019 the European Parliament called for an EU-wide policy for cannabis for therapeutic purposes and for properly funded scientific research.

Sinning too late, the European Union's action was pressured by the great demand from companies dedicated to the sale of products and medicines based on plant compounds, as well as by the financial results recorded in countries where, in the meantime, there was already an industry for the production of cannabis for medicinal purposes, especially on the American continent. Of these, Canada was one of the pioneers in 2001, in the United States this journey began in 1996, with the state of California, and continued until reaching the current 18 states in which the use of cannabis is legal for recreational purposes 21 years old, with medical cannabis being regulated in a total of 37 states. In 2014, Uruguay passed the law regulating the medical and recreational cannabis market. Already China, predicting the profits of this industry, managed to reach hemp production levels of 70% of the world production, becoming the world's largest producer of hemp and CBD for export.

Seeds for “recreational” use

The use of cannabis seeds for recreational purposes was promoted contrary to the laws in force in the European space, specifically through the organization of farmers operating in the illicit market, which was mobilized with a genuine concern to guarantee the quality of the species. The pioneers in this mission were Spain and the Netherlands, which managed to adapt the existing realities to a pressing need to ensure that cannabis reached consumers in an informed and safer way than obtaining it on the illicit market.

Gorilla Girl® Sprouted Seed / Photo: Tommy L. Gomez / Sweet Seeds

These two countries have established models that allow cannabis growers, even without state regulation, to maintain a resource management system and knowledge shared between plant growers, allowing the creation of a very complete network in terms of cannabis seeds. , creating a seed bank. The main role of this mission in Europe was taken over by Sensi Seeds, which since 1985 has managed to dedicate itself to the cannabis seed industry, having become the largest cannabis seed bank in the world, with more than 500 cannabis strains. Today, the varieties and the brand name Sensi Seeds are recognized as decisive in this extremely valuable mission that was the creation of a genetic inheritance of the plant, the result of variations and crossings of strains by the growers. This importance is such that the Dutch government chose Sensi Seeds strains to develop medical cannabis that is distributed through pharmacies.

Cannabis sativa's genetic origin dates back to the early Neolithic

It was thanks to all the behind-the-scenes work carried out by activists over the last few decades that a genetic heritage of the plant was built.

According to a study published in July in the journal Science Advances, cannabis regulation and the genetic history of its domestication could be much more complete if governments and the prohibitionist law had not vetoed all kinds of research and studies around the plant for decades. 

The researchers who carried out the study collected 110 complete genomes that span the entire spectrum of cannabis, from wild plants to modern hybrids used for hemp and recreational use.

Research has shown that “Cannabis sativa was first domesticated in the Early Neolithic, East Asia, and all current cultivars [i.e., artificially bred plant species] diverged from an ancestral genetic background, currently represented by wild plants. or local races in China”. One of the authors of this investigation states that it was possible to conclude that all cannabis plants existing today are descended from plants domesticated in the region of origin and that the mother plants of Cannabis Sativa are already extinct.

At the moment, given the demands of several markets that spread and proliferate throughout the world and that expand at a dizzying speed, with the rapid creation of legislation to legalize the use of the plant for both medicinal and adult use, it makes a priority requirement is the demand for seeds of excellence.
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* Graduated in Law in 2005, with an internship completed and a member of the Portuguese Bar Association since 2007, Margarida Leitão Ferreira practiced law between Porto, Matosinhos and Vila Nova de Gaia for 15 consecutive years, exclusively in the area of ​​civil, banking and executive law. In 2015, she entered the real estate field and also dedicated herself to the study of cannabis in the legal field and the various challenges that this topic represents. Cannabis has been playing a significant role in your personal and professional journey.

Chronicle originally published in issue #3 of Cannadouro Magazine