Uruguay’s Public Health Ministry has authorised the sale of ‘mate yerba’ tea products that include cannabis.
The products will be available from June. The Public Health Ministry’s Pablo Riveiro confirmed these will “be freely available and anybody can consume them” since they will not be “psychoactive”, he told El País.
Companies producing creams, soaps, bathing gels, cereal snacks and scones, are among those lining up for approval to incorporate cannabis in their products, the newspaper reported.
The manufacturing “project is composed of several stages. The first is the habilitation of the factory which will be located in the middle of the country and will comply with best practice in manufacture, and will also comply with all required controls on the pharmaceutical industry”, chemist Susana Tchekmeyan told El País.
Yerba mate is a traditional tea beverage that is popular in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Uruguay legalised limited, non-medicinal cannabis consumption and cultivation for registered citizens in 2016.
-TIMES
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