In 2024, STJ authorized seed cultivation and importation; drugs treat serious conditions such as epilepsy and chronic pain
The Government of the President (PT), through the (General Advocacy of the Union), filed in the 2nd (19.MAI.2025) a plan for regulation and inspection of treatments with drugs based on cannabis.
The initiative was prepared based on the (Superior Court of Justice), of November 2024, which authorized the importation of seeds and the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal use. Read the document (PDF – 322 KB).
The Court set a period of 6 months for the (National Health Surveillance Agency) and the Union to regulate the theme.
At the time, the rapporteur of the case, Minister Regina Helena Costa, said that the prohibition on the use of cannabis For medicinal purposes impairs the national industry and prevents patients’ access to treatments.
The document brings together measures to standard all the steps of the process, from production to access by patients. Normative regulation is expected to be published until September 2025.
The Plan of Action participates the Ministries of Health, Justice and Public Safety, Agriculture and Livestock, Agrarian Development and Family Farming and Anvisa.
Medicinal Cannabis in Brazil
Since 2015, Anvisa has authorized the importation of products based on cannabis with medical prescription. In 2019, it regulated marketing in the country, but only with imported raw materials.
According to the government, this makes production costs more expensive and makes it difficult to access the population.
“The high cost of sugarcane -based medicinal products in Brazil produces serious iniquities regarding access to health treatments with such medicines, since the obligation to import inputs rather than cultivating vegetable in the national territory, raises the cost of manufacture and prices practiced by drug producers ”says the document.
The estimate is that more than 670,000 people in Brazil use drugs based on cannabis To treat conditions such as refractory epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. Studies prove the therapeutic efficacy of the substance in the control of symptoms resistant to conventional treatments.
Much of access to products still occurs through lawsuits. Since 2022, the Ministry of Health has complied with about 820 court decisions related to the offer of these drugs. Even without regulation, associations obtained authorization for cultivation and production for medicinal purposes.
