Boyaca, a province in central Colombia, is set to be the first in the country to begin production of medical marijuana, according to local media.

The Government of Boyaca, Canadian laboratory Canavida and the Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia (UPTC) has been promoting the project that seeks to grow marijuana in several greenhouses across the department

The project aims to further drug research, particularly in relation to curing epilepsy and cancer.

“The idea is that the project begins to walk in the second half of this year. Initially it would be experimental, but if it works the idea is to expand the number of hectares planted, in such a way that this process could be brought forward with associations of duly organized peasants, ” said Jorge Ivan Londoño, the agriculture secretary of Boyaca.

According to Londoño, “there is a possibility that this Canadian company build a laboratory in Boyaca.”

The experimental program in Boyaca comes after President Juan Manuel Santos signed a decree in December...