Justice authorizes patient to enter Brazil with 300 g of marijuana

Under the bright midday light and the reflection of the sands of Arpoador beach, in the south of Rio de Janeiro, a military policeman had to squint to see the fine print on the paper that Viviane Silveira, 35, handed him be addressed.

The sheet reads that “the indictment or arrest by public agents” of the carioca is prohibited, “as well as the seizure of the products” that she uses in her medical treatment for fibromyalgia: cannabis sativaof prohibited use in the country, and that the PM had generically called marijuana and torn from Viviane’s fingers.

“He was so rough that, if I had my gel nails, he would have broken”, criticizes her, who says she remembered the “frames” of the PM common in the favela of the city where she was born and raised. “I won’t hide. My medication is legal for me. And that made the policeman angry.”

Sought, the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro did not return the contacts of the Sheet until the end of the report.

The flowers had been legally acquired in Germany, where Viviane has lived for over 15 years, taking care of her two children, aged 16 and 7, and jobs like funk DJ and MC Vivi Boop. It was there, after almost 20 hospitalizations due to the intense pain caused by the rheumatologic disease, that she started to use the cannabis in a medicinal way.

“I had already suffered liver, pancreas and thyroid problems because of the strong medications I was taking. My hair almost all falls out”, he says. “The quality of life that marijuana brought me was surreal. Before I could barely play with my daughter. Today I play soccer with my son just fine.”

Armed with prescriptions and medical reports, Viviane began to receive reimbursement from the family health plan for part of the nearly R$2,000 she spends a month on flowers.

“The health plan paid for expensive drugs that didn’t prevent my hospitalizations, like morphine and immunosuppressants, but I didn’t want to pay for marijuana,” she recalls. “It was a great victory to receive this refund. I even get emotional”, she completes, her voice breaking.

The paper in the PM’s hand was a habeas corpus signed by Judge Valéria Caldi Magalhães, of the 8th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro.

She granted the safe-conduct so that Viviane could enter and leave Brazil with 300 grams of cannabis sativa and with a vaporizing device for “personal use in connection with your medical treatment”. The case was classified by the judge and the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) as “exceptional”.

The judicial authorization was understood as necessary to guarantee that Viviane “enters and remains on national soil carrying a therapeutic product based on cannabis sativa that it already administers in itself on a regular basis, without suffering any kind of criminal sanction”.

“If she were arrested, she would suffer violence in her freedom to come and go, but her treatment would also be unduly interrupted by a state act, in clear violation of international standards that guarantee her fundamental right to health, and articles 6 and 196 of the Federal Constitution. “, wrote the judge.

The request to the Federal Court came after Viviane’s father was diagnosed in Brazil with cancer at an advanced stage, and she decided that she needed to find a way to come to the country.

“I hadn’t come to Brazil for ten years because, before the reimbursement of the plan, there was no money left. Now, I needed to give my father a hug. But what about marijuana? I didn’t want to stay illegal or use a bad product or take the risk to be harassed by the police or prosecuted for drug trafficking,” she says.

When traveling through Europe, Viviane carries an authorization from the German Ministry of Health valid throughout the European Union. “The police and the judiciary of all the countries of the bloc already know this documentation, so I travel calmly. But I had never risked traveling to other countries”, she says.

“I contacted Anvisa, but I didn’t get a response. I contacted the Ministry of Health, and nothing. That’s when I came across an article in which a lawyer was talking about lawsuits involving self-cultivation cannabis for the production of oils for medical consumption. I went after them.”

Criminal lawyer Marcela Sanches, who represented Viviane in the request, explains that article 2 of the Drug Law (11,343, of 2006) mentions medicinal use, but it was not regulated.

“Many patients had plants seized and were subjected to constraints, such as driving to the police station or even using handcuffs, in addition to other disproportionate measures”, he reports.

For her, it is a “complex situation because the police understand that it is a crime until it is proven that the use is medicinal”.

There is robust scientific evidence that medical marijuana has beneficial effects for treating chronic pain, multiple sclerosis symptoms, chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting, and some rare diseases and severe forms of epilepsies. More than 40 countries authorize the use of medical marijuana based on its main active ingredients: CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).

In Germany, the use of cannabis medicinal product has been allowed since 2015, and was regulated by a law passed in 2017 that allows the importation, production and marketing, upon medical recommendation, of flowers, extracts and nasal sprays.

In Brazil, the plant cannabis sativa is classified as a drug by law 11,343 of 2006, even though Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) recognizes its therapeutic efficacy through resolutions that regulate prescription, import authorization, marketing and inspection of products for medicinal purposes.

In 2021, the House committee approved PL 399, which regulates the cultivation and medicinal and industrial production of cannabis in Brazil. The text must go to the Senate.

Viviane’s case, however, conflicts with the Brazilian legal framework on two points. First, because the granting of authorization for import is made to companies based in the country and to people residing in the country, and they reside in Germany. In addition, the list of products approved by Anvisa for importation does not include flowers, such as those used by Anvisa, under the trade name Bedrocan.

This is one of many cannabis flower brands marketed for medicinal purposes in Germany. There, this type of product represents more than 50% of the medical marijuana market.

In 2020, the German government health insurance company (GVK) reimbursed around 160 thousand euros in medicines derived from cannabis. Almost 40% of that amount went to flowers, like the ones Viviane vaporizes through the Mighty device, from the German brand Storz & Bickel.

But that afternoon, in Arpoador, the device overheated, as it does in very hot places. “I had to roll a cigarette so I could use my medication,” she says. When the cigarette was at the end, the PM approached her.

“I said: ‘My lord, the whole beach is smoking marijuana. Are you coming to get the judge’s role? Is it because I’m black and with a favelada profile?'”, she says.

After seeing the documentation, the officer returned the rest of the cigarette and walked away. Viviane then says that she burst into tears. “My dream is to be approached by a polite and respectful police officer.”