Currently in our country the necessary conditions already exist for the cannabis industry to ‘detonate’ and for local producers to enter the international industry as one of the main exponents.
Official data show that in the United States of America the legal Cannabis industry generated more than twenty billion dollars in taxes since it began in 2014 and currently, cannabis consumption exceeds alcohol consumption in that country.
On the other hand, the international cannabis community observes the development of the issue in Mexico, including due to the unmatched advantages that the country has to be a world leader in the industry.
Currently there are three fully identified markets in the cannabis industry: recreational, industrial and pharmaceutical. Each one is differentiated by the variety of plant it uses, processes and sells as a final product.
The recreational or recreational consumption industry uses cannabis in its sativa, indica or American variety and these varieties contain THC and currently there are thousands of varieties.
The pharmaceutical industry, practically without development, in the study stage, and very promising for laboratories, and the, perhaps more interesting, hemp industry, industrial hemp or ‘hemp’, which uses cannabis in its Sativa L variety, the same as Historically, it has been related to humans as it is made of one of the most resistant natural fibers known to humanity (in the past, ship ropes were made of hemp).
In this sense, it is worth saying that the plant ventures into the following industries: textile, paper, wood, plastic, fuel, clean energy, electronics, and even food, since the hemp seed is considered a superfood due to its high protein content. , (surpassing salmon in omega content), in addition to aerospace and automobiles.
Hemp is currently considered one of the most promising industries and, above all, one that could change the climate course of our planet, as it is one of the most environmentally friendly.
With this context, and with the interest of immersing himself in the hemp business since 2017, Alejandro García Estrada, one of the managers of the legal services firm Oliveros-Estrada, from the state of Durango, began the research and design of a strategy to obtain a health authorization for recreational consumption of cannabis in all its varieties and with various particularities, to satisfy the complete chain of self-consumption.
In an exclusive interview with Forbes, García Estrada tells how “after four years of procedures and litigation, in 2021, we managed to obtain the recreational consumption authorization in my name, this being one of the most robust granted to date by COFEPRIS (No. the R. perhaps because it is the initials); “which ranges from the legal acquisition of the seed, through its sowing, cultivation, harvesting, preparation, transportation and other processes necessary to carry out the complete production chain for the self-consumption of cannabis in all its varieties.”
It is worth saying that the General Health Law establishes the regulation of psychotropic substances and all acts related to them, their control and safety measures; highlighting section V of article 245 of the Law, which refers to products that lack therapeutic value and are commonly used in the industry, whose main characteristic is the almost zero concentration of the psychoactive substance or THC which is one percent or less. This variety is sativa L, commonly known as hemp, industrial hemp or ‘hemp’.
In this way, the lawyer explains that “after obtaining the authorization for recreational consumption, we constituted the legal entity called “María y Juana Cannabis, SAPI de CV, which, in December 2023, obtained authorization from COFEPRIS for sowing, cultivation, harvesting.” and commercialization of the cannabis plant, in its Sativa L variety.”
In this way, the venture started by García Estrada became the first company with 100% Mexican capital to receive authorization for the industrialization of cannabis sativa L (hemp or hemp’), which subsequently consolidated the OIEs Group, which through of its founder added the largest agricultural agropark in the State of Durango to its portfolio.
In this sense, the businessman says that “this facility, called ‘Agroparque Durango I’, also started the #ElMaizEsMexicano and #ElMaizEsDeMexico program, and the first 100% legal cannabis plantation in Mexico, crops with which it is also intended to rescue “Mexican production of corn parent seed.”
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García Estrada explains that “once we obtained permission from COFEPRIS to work with hemp, we began to size up the issue with the intention of detonating this industry. In my case, we are a family of industrialists from the state of Jalisco related to food production, specifically corn.”
He adds that “when they gave me permission to industrialize hemp, the University of Chapingo, through the government of Durango, invited me to present the first model of an authorized cannabis industry, precisely of hemp. So it was that on the day of the presentation, they invited me to meet some corn parent seed production specialists and there I found out that 80% of the seed that is currently planted in national territory is of origin or belongs to foreign conglomerates.” .
In harmony, the lawyer confided that one of his objectives is to “attract investment to the State of Durango through the installation of various specialized industries in the sector, such as food (through the operation of the Durango I agropark); construction (production of concrete and cannablocks), since hemp adds thermal and resistant properties to concrete; health and pharmaceutical (through the installation of extraction laboratories).
“We also seek to promote the textile industry (with the planting of hemp in large open areas); research (through development programs for cannafrene, a product that competes against graphene); automotive and aerospace, where the use of hemp for special fibers is very popular, and many others,” García Estrada points out.
Due to the breadth of cannabis possibilities in the country, the lawyer trusts that it will be possible to “establish the first legal business model of the cannabis tourism industry in Mexico, especially in the municipality of Francisco I. Madero, in the State of Durando; by enabling the recreational area of the Durango I agropark, which currently has
eight finished cabins, two more in the process of delivery and an area of more than 6 hectares of tourist-recreational area.”
Finally, the lawyer explained that from the beginning of the year he will continue with the implementation of the first business model of legal cannabis clubs in Mexico, “with such specialized logistics that our clients will be able to have product in various parts of the republic, on which “We will share news soon.”
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