What happens if a patient is terminal diagnosed or if a young man is about to attack himself because he is a prisoner of his mind and no medicine can save him? Many people in Peru who could not see a way out of their fear have found quality of life in medicinal cannabis.
Despite this, Peruvian patients are still faced with the lack of mass access, and in all its forms, to cannabis in pharmacies, as nearly four years after a historic law was enacted allowing only one state institution to use it, so far has been authorized to sell it.
It is added that the law passed in 2017 allows the planting of the plant, but to date the General Directorate of Medicines, Supplies and Drugs “does not issue the permits,” said the chairman of the Cannabis organization Gotas de Esperanza, Francesca. EFE Brivio.
HOPE FOR SERIOUS CASES
It’s a summer morning in San Juan de Lurigancho, a district of more than 1.2 million people in eastern Lima, and Jorge Padilla, 71, is sitting in the living room of his home, accompanied by his wife and son, with a very good face and physical condition
However, two years ago, Padilla was diagnosed with brain cancer after realizing he lost vision in one eye and had difficulty walking.
“My father had a prognosis (for life) for only six months, the tumor they discovered was grade 4, the most aggressive, a super difficult tumor,” his son, also called Jorge Padilla, told EFE.
A few miles away, in the northern district of Carabayllo, Roger Quispe’s 31-year-old family lived in fear because the youngest of their children had developed a schizoid personality in addition to the epilepsy he had contracted since he was 7 years old. .
“He was very serious, he already had schizophrenia, he even picked up a knife because he thought they were chasing him and I had to stop him. All that made me desperate,” his mother, Betty Gamarra, told EFE.
Like many family members seeking help for their loved ones, Padilla’s son and Quispe’s mother contacted Brivio, whose organization advises on the use of cannabis for medicinal and therapeutic purposes.
Brivio herself came to use cannabis a few years ago after being diagnosed with mastocytosis, a blood disorder that caused about 60 symptoms and a series of medical treatments, which she gradually discontinued.
QUALITY OF LIFE FOR SICK
The change is radical for these people, who have benefited from the legalization of cannabis for medicinal and therapeutic use, following a wide-ranging campaign of civic associations.
This is the case with Roger, who has been feeling much better since he started taking cannabis oil, has reduced the pills he takes every day and the seizures he had seen less from epilepsy.
“Since taking these drugs, I feel better because at first I was suspicious of people, that I looked at me or saw me, wanted to suspect something … since I took the oil, I have gotten better,” he said. .
His mother added that “the seizure reduced him a lot, and especially the psychosis he had.”
Padilla, for his part, started a cannabis oil treatment in parallel with chemotherapy and feels “normal”, so he says he has overcome the impact of the therapy and the “discouragement of the pills”.
“I felt cannabis normalize, relieving discomfort. Even in the morning I would be doing my laps to the park, but right now I have been keeping myself from going out because of the pandemic,” he said.
ON THE MARGINS OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
Max Alzamora, one of the founders of Gotas de Esperanza, told Efe that he started treating his patients a year before the law regulating the medicinal use of cannabis in Peru was passed, even knowing that they were “ as much at risk to the patient as the doctors “who used it.
Despite the law’s enactment, under pressure from organizations like Brivio, the regulation that put it into effect was passed in 2019, but so far only one state pharmacy is selling the product in Lima.
“What is currently being sold is only in Lima, and only the oil is sold, but the flowers are disregarded, which is important in my treatment,” said Brivio.
For his part, Alzamora warned that “you can enter social networks and find cannabis, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good product, because there’s no way to check it.”
In this sense, Brivio disclosed not only that the plant permits have not yet been issued, but also that the treatment is not covered by health insurance, despite the regulation permitting it.
DIFFICULT ACCESS TO CANNABIS
At least two components of the plant, THC and CBD, have been extensively studied, and the former has demonstrated its analgesic, nausea and anti-tumor effect, Alzamora added.
“CBD is the non-euphoric component, which has an anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, antidepressant effect, improves fine motor coordination and balance and a high dose can condition sleep,” explains the specialist.
The doctor uses both components in different concentrations, from all parts of the plant, to treat their patients according to their diagnosis, and it can also be administered in oil, vaporizer, ointments or vaginal eggs, among other things.
Alzamora added that they have been working in the dark “all this time,” but showed a significant improvement in the patients’ quality of life.
This doctor’s practice is one year old since it was officially opened in Lima and has treated more than 1,200 patients with 127 different diagnoses during that period.