President of H360 speaks at hearing on hemp in the Chamber of Deputies

On December 12, the president of the Humanitas360 Institute and advisor to the Institute for Social and Economic Research on Cannabis (Ipsec), Patrícia Villela Marino, participated in a public hearing at the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasília. Promoted by the Economic Development Commission, the meeting on “Hemp: The Path to National Autonomy in the Production of Cannabinoids” brought together parliamentarians, representatives of public bodies, businesspeople and activists on the topic. The debate is an initiative of congressman Félix Mendonça Júnior, who was also present.

“I always ask myself: When did my country decide it didn’t need to be competitive with hemp? When do we put hemp where it never needed to be (because it has no psychoactivity)? These are the questions that we have to bring to the House of the People”, said Patrícia Villela Marino. “Don’t we need a new energy mix? A new economic matrix? I would like to know these answers. And here we have experts to bring answers. But much more important is that the Brazilian people can have the necessary information, can thus constitute their due process of knowledge and therefore have their lawful, legitimate position.”

The president of H360 also defended that the Chamber of Deputies put to a vote the matter that regulates medicinal Cannabis and industrial hemp in the country: “The bill that implements legalization is in this house. Bill 399 of 2015 is in this house, waiting for this house to take a position. Brazilian men and women need an answer, they need access to this decision. And this is a life decision, because non-decision is death.”

Watch the full hearing below: