Janaina Torres defends the decriminalization of marijuana and says she just didn’t test it in the kitchen due to lack of opportunity

Recently awarded the best female chef in the world, Janaina Torres spoke about her relationship with drugs in an interview with Breeza magazine, a publication specializing in marijuana. Despite not being a user of the herb, she says she is in favor of decriminalization and says that she only hasn’t tried cannabis in cooking due to lack of opportunity.

“I didn’t do it because they haven’t sent it to me yet. I haven’t received it. But of course if I receive it, I’ll do it”, he said. “I don’t do well with cannabis, it gives me a certain panic. It’s a substance that, for my body, didn’t work well. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be good for someone else”, says the chef.

For Janaina, criminalizing weed only increases the problem, since the consumer does not have access to the origin of the product. She compares the problem to the ultra-processed food crisis.

“From the moment it gets into the wrong hands, they will mix it with synthetic and chemical substances and whoever is buying it doesn’t even know what’s inside,” she says. “Everything has to have a provenance, where it comes from, how it is made, who planted it. It’s the same as food. Industries that put in much more nitrate and nitrite than they should, so many dyes, emulsifiers, if legalized this would happen, can you imagine criminalizing it?”

“We have to decriminalize it and see what happens”, he argues. Yes, I am in favor of decriminalization, done in an educational way, with a campaign. I don’t need to smoke to understand that other people can smoke. And if we were to ban this herb, then we would have to ban alcohol. There are very bad products on the market with alcohol, 70% alcohol and the person is devastated inside. It’s very dubious, it’s very contradictory”, he protests.

UNFRIENDLY SEPARATION

Newly married after separating from chef Jeferson Rueda, with whom she was a partner in several restaurants in the center of São Paulo, Janaina opened up about the difficult times she went through in her marriage and divorce.

“Betrayal, sometimes, is even flexible, let’s say. A betrayal, a slip. We are human, we are flesh and blood. But disloyalty, those hurt us a lot. I had to face a lot ugly, which I didn’t imagine”, he lamented.

Formerly Janaina Rueda, she also changed her name in the process. She went back to using Torres, her maiden surname. “I can’t keep the other person’s name. I didn’t have an amicable separation, it was tumultuous, it was complicated. I was watching Jô Soares’ documentary and I thought Flávia was so beautiful [ex-mulher de Jô] saying that he asked her to take his last name. She gets emotional in front of the judge, saying that she will be proud to carry her last name. It could have happened to me, but it didn’t. I wasn’t proud of taking that name on myself”, he said.

“It’s a shame, because I would have liked to have continued, perhaps, because of our history, because of what we built together. But this separation is very difficult. It’s not good,” he said.