The store front of Ganja Farm in downtown Bogotá is small and nondescript, but the pungent smell on approach is unmistakable. A quick glance through the barred front door reveals a network of metallic ductwork. It does not reveal the marijuana plants the company grows, or the lab where they turn them into health products.

Inside a cozy little office, an elderly man in his work clothes that are splattered with dry paint, sits talking to Camilo Andrés Cruz, one of the founders of Ganja Farm. Cruz puts a small canister of green cannabis-infused ointment for his client's arthritis in a cloth bag and sees him on his way.

"We don't want to sell the company to other people," Cruz says later. "We love this."

While a 1986 law allowed for the manufacture, export, sale and medical and scientific use of marijuana, the practice was, until Tuesday, never formally regulated.Current law already allows possession of up to 20 grams of marijuana or cultivation of up to 20 marijuana plants for personal use.

Colombia joins countries from Mexico to Chile for legalization on marijuana

With the new rules, Colombia joins countries from Mexico to Chile that have experimented with legalization or decriminalization as part of a wave of changing attitudes toward drug use and policies to combat it in Latin America.The proponents of medical marijuana claim that up to 400,000 Colombian citizens can use cannabis products to treat symptoms of epilepsy and other illnesses.

AS THE drug war has rumbled on, with little to show for all the money and violence, its critics have become a more diverse bunch than the hippies and libertarians who first backed drug reform. The latest broadside against prohibition was fired on March 24th by a group of former heads of state and businesspeople, who put forward a sober case for rethinking the international approach to drug control.

In April 2016, the international community will convene for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS). This event, held two years early due to the urgency of the drug situation and intensity of drug-related violence, presents an opportunity to question the fundamentals of international drug policy. Despite overwhelming evidence that a century-long quest to control human behaviour and drug markets through international treaties and national legislation has failed, there is little expectation of change. The vested interests in retaining the status quo are significant, with sclerosis legitimised through the recurrent exhortation to improve international co-operation.

The global tide concerning marijuana legalization is slowly turning. Amsterdam, with its famous coffeeshops where smoking cannabis is OK, was once the international city most associated with legally smoking marijuana. But more countries are passing legislation either decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana in some form. In fact, almost half the states in the United States have legalized marijuana somehow — with more likely to follow suit. 

Privately held PharmaCielo Ltd. today announced that its Rionegro, Colombia based subsidiary, PharmaCielo Colombia Holdings S.A.S. has submitted its formal application to Minsalud, Colombia’s Ministry of Health, and the Consejo Nacional de Estupefacientes (National Drugs Council) to become a licensed marijuana grower and processor of medicinal-grade cannabis oil extracts, with plans to file an additional license application for export in the near future.

TORONTO, Feb. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - PharmaCielo Ltd. today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Rionegro, Colombia based PharmaCielo Colombia Holdings S.A.S. has submitted its formal application to the Ministry of Health and the National Drugs Council to become a licensed grower and processor of medicinal-grade cannabis oil extracts, with plans to file an additional license application for export in the near future.

This announcement comes after President Juan Manuel Santos signed regulatory Decree 2467, on December the 22nd, 2015, establishing a licensing framework for the cultivation, processing, research and development and exportation of cannabis derivatives for scientific and medical purposes. 

Members of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), KOPAC and Dioscorides Global Holdings (DGH) were joined by the Minister of Health for the Czech Republic recently to announce the establishment of a new research center, the International Cannabis and Cannabinoid Institute (ICCI) – intended to foster evidence-based exploration with a modern scientific approach to refine the therapeutic applicability of cannabis-based medicines in the Czech Republic. ICCI will identify, coordinate and support global research priorities for the advancement of cannabis and cannabinoid treatments through a multidisciplinary evidence based approach that incorporates innovative tools and approaches.

Colombia joined the group of Latin American countries to legalize the use of cannabis (marijuana) for medical and scientific purposes, after President Juan Manuel Santos signed on December 22 a decree regulating the cultivation, processing, import and export of cannabis to those objectives.

With this measure, the Colombian government finally seeks to regulate these activities, in addition to owning and controlling seed growing areas, provided medical and scientific purposes, which was allowed for decades but had no regulation. What it has not legalized is cannabis use on public roads and marketing.