The president of Costa Rica’s Social Security System, María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal, on Friday denied stories by several local media outlets stating that the agency’s board of directors had approved the medicinal use of cannabis.

Caja board members on Thursday were complying with a Legislative Assembly request to evaluate the drafting of a bill that would propose the regulation of growing, processing and marketing of cannabis for medicinal use, Sáenz explained.

“After analyzing various technical reports issued by Caja experts, this board concluded that we do not oppose the bill in its current form. However, in order to respect our autonomy, we recommended changes to the draft of at least three separate articles, specifically regulating the approval [of cannabis], to make it clear that adoption of new legislation would not imply any type of obligation for the Caja,” she said.

Sáenz said the board’s actions are normal procedure followed regularly in several other cases where the Assembly has submitted a bill for consultation. The approval of...