Brazil: The vanguard of the delay in medical cannabis

On 14/10/2022, the Federal Council of Medicine of Brazil (CFM) published Resolution 2.324/2022, on the therapeutic use of Cannabis, updating Resolution 2.113/2014 on the same topic, and amended the current regulations on the use of cannabis. medical prescription, maintaining restrictions on some clinical conditions subject to the therapeutic use of Cannabis.

Resolutions nº 2113 of 2014 (revoked) and nº 2324 of 2022 (in force), deal with the use of cannabidiol (CBD) for the treatment of “childhood and adolescent epilepsy refractory to conventional therapies” and prohibit the doctor from prescribing cannabis. in natura for medicinal use, as well as any derivatives other than CBD.

The new resolution, different from the previous one, (i) specifies and restricts which clinical conditions can be treated with CBD, namely: epilepsies treatable with Cannabidiol, citing the three applicable cases: Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, in addition to of the Tuberous Sclerosis Complex.

It also (ii) ceases to restrict the prescription only to the specialties of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry and (iii) prohibits physicians from giving lectures and courses on the use of cannabidiol and/or products derived from Cannabis outside the scientific environment, as well as from advertising disclosure.

With this positioning, CFM continues to impose on Brazil its position in the vanguard of the backwardness regarding the medicinal use of Cannabis. Arbitrarily restricting the role of medical professionals both in clinical practice and in the dissemination of information on the medical uses of cannabis derivatives. The risk is that this new norm is a door to the persecution of doctors who treat their patients with Cannabis, as has already been done with some doctors in Brazil”, he says.

An unconstitutional resolution
The Resolution of the Federal Council of Medicine is totally unconstitutional, since it directly affects the dignity of the human person and the right to health, when it threatens and aims to stop treatments with Cannabis, which are already taking place and effectively to relieve pain and or symptoms of patients in Brazil, for arbitrary reasons, without plausible medical-scientific justifications.

In the opinion of lawyer Ricardo Nemer, also a member of Rede Reforma “this is a scientific and legal terraplanism, worse than offending human dignity and the right to health, as there is still the practice of a crime. CFM is committing a crime of failure to provide assistance, Article 135 of the Brazilian Penal Code – Failing to provide assistance, when possible without personal risk, to an abandoned or lost child, or to an invalid or injured person, who is helpless or in serious and imminent danger; or not to ask, in these cases, the relief of public authority: Penalty – detention, from one to six months, or fine.”

There is no way to dismiss, deny or make invisible the political moment in which Brazil finds itself and lives, close to an election that will decide whether or not to re-elect the current president, Bolsonaro, a character declared to be linked to neo-Petencostal religious precepts and against Cannabis in any case. aspects. The other candidate, in turn, Lula da Silva, who is less conservative and more leftist, may be a hope for a change in the direction of the matter in the country.

Until then, it is time to be very cautious and wait, with wishes for a better future for patients who make therapeutic use of Cannabis in Brazil.
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*Emilio Figueiredo is a lawyer in Brazil, works primarily with cannabis and is a member of Rede Reforma.
** Aquiles Castro Junior is a lawyer in Brazil and Portugal and a member of the Scientific Council of the Mothers for Cannabis Movement in Portugal

The authors write in Brazilian Portuguese.