The Cannabis boom in Argentina
Published in Crisis Magazine
In May 2022, the Argentine Congress passed a law to regulate the medical cannabis and industrial hemp industry. One year later, Argentina is taking its first steps in the production, commercialization and export of the cannabis plant, exploring a market whose value could reach $450 million in the next decade, according to official estimates. Cannabis could also reshape tourism in this part of the country.
"Cannabis is a plant that has five thousand years of history and accompanied humanity during all its great events. We have to understand that we are the only generation that was born with cannabis prohibited, and it is up to us to free it," says engineer Benjamin Enrici, director of Agrogenetica Riojana, the mother project and flagship of the cannabis cluster in La Rioja.
Benjamin tells me that when he traveled to California in 2012, he realized that cannabis could be an opportunity for regional economies, not only in La Rioja, but in all the northern provinces, impoverished and historically relegated to the interests of Buenos Aires.
In May 2022, the Argentine Congress passed a law to regulate the medical cannabis and industrial hemp industry. One year later, Argentina is taking its first steps in the production, commercialization and export of the cannabis plant, exploring a market whose value could reach $450 million in the next decade, according to official estimates. Cannabis could also reshape tourism in this part of the country.
"Cannabis is a plant that has five thousand years of history and accompanied humanity during all its great events. We have to understand that we are the only generation that was born with cannabis prohibited, and it is up to us to free it," says engineer Benjamin Enrici, director of Agrogenetica Riojana, the mother project and flagship of the cannabis cluster in La Rioja.
Benjamin tells me that when he traveled to California in 2012, he realized that cannabis could be an opportunity for regional economies, not only in La Rioja, but in all the northern provinces, impoverished and historically relegated to the interests of Buenos Aires.
[spanish]