Análisis y propuestas productivas para el cultivo de cannabis de uso medicinal en la Comarca Andina del Paralelo 42°.

Abstract

Speaking of the Andean Region of the 42nd Parallel or El Bolsón automatically brings to mind idyllic landscapes, summer trips with overstuffed backpacks, drinking beer, visiting the hippie fair, and "smoking a joint." 1 This undoubtedly has to do with the fact that the consumption of Cannabis sativa ("hemp," "marijuana," "cannabis") has been part of the idiosyncrasy of a large sector of the Region since the 1970s. Since then, the methods of production and administration have changed, to the point that a significant percentage of the herbal preparations based on this plant consumed in the country come from this area. While this could be interpreted as a positive shift in terms of both "moral" and productive development, the truth is that both the cultivation and production of herbal preparations suffer from a series of difficulties that prevent the products from truly positioning themselves in a growing market and generate concerns among those who prescribe, recommend, and consume them. Based on the perceptions of both cannabis growers and processors regarding the raw material, and consumers regarding the quality and effectiveness of the final product, we focused on identifying some of the challenges faced by medicinal cannabis production during the period 2020 to 2022 in order to make recommendations aimed at overcoming them. The reconstruction of the international historical context, the analysis of Argentine legislation, the socio-productive characterization of the region, interviews and surveys conducted with key players in the production and consumption of phytopreparations, in addition to crop records and laboratory trials, have resulted in a scientific product co-constructed from the movement, science, and practice as pillars of agroecological thinking within which we inscribe organic production (Wezel, 2009). This paper seeks to contextualize and characterize the production of the Cannabis sativa plant for medicinal purposes in the Andean region of the 42nd parallel, identifying the main socio-productive challenges and proposing technical interventions to improve cultivation and strengthen this sector.