Minister of Production and Foreign Trade, Iván Ontaneda says: "CANNABIS INDUSTRY IS A GREAT OPP

The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic will force countries to explore new industries to balance the economy and one of the options that could be applied in Ecuador is the medical cannabis and hemp industry.

On May 12th, 2020, the Minister of Production and Foreign Trade, Iván Ontaneda, referred in his Twitter account about it.

"... The medicinal and industrial cannabis industry is a great opportunity for the country, it will generate thousands of jobs and dollars," Ministry Ontaneda wrote.

Starting at June 24th of 2020 a group of reforms to the Ecuadorian Criminal Code (COIP) [Código Orgánico Integral Penal] approved by the National Assembly of Ecuador will be in force, which include articles that regulate the use of medicinal cannabis for therapeutic, palliative, medicinal purposes or for the exercise of alternative medicine, as long as it is proven with a professional diagnosis that a person have an illness.

In addition, non-psychoactive cannabis or hemp was excluded as a listed substance subject to control by the Ecuadorian Government, as long as its content of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is less than 1%, on dry weight.

The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health, have less than a month to issue the regulations of the reforms to the COIP, which was published in the Official Registry on December 24th, 2019.

The regulations granted 180 days to draw up the regulations. Past Monday, May 11th, 2020, President Moreno, signed Executive Decree 1049, which established changes in the General Regulations to the Organic Law on Comprehensive Prevention of the Socioeconomic Phenomenon of Drugs and Regulation and Control

President Moreno officialized changes in the qualification and authorization to permanently manage scheduled substances subject to control for the activities and purposes determined in the Law. In addition, he replaced in all the regulations the articles that made reference to the Technical Secretariat of Drugs, an entity that was suppressed by the State of Emergency on April 24, 2018.

The source of this information was taken from the [website: https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/ivan-ontaneda-industria-medicinal-cannabis.html] and verified about its content by EcuaAssist.