No Insurance? No Problem: Get Your Medical Cannabis Through the Public Health System in This Country

As part of a series of progressive new regulations, Argentina has decided to legalize the use of medicinal cannabis, including free products through the national public health system for patients without private health insurance.

“This new stage in the law starts to redress the injustice of the persecution and stigmatization of a plant that has brought quality of life to a lot of people,” says Valeria Salech, president of campaigning group Mamá Cultiva Argentina. The new regulations include the requirement to “implement measures to provide, for free on behalf of the state, products derived from the cannabis plant for patients who have a medical prescription and only have public health coverage,” as stipulated in the legal annex.

Argentina first legalized medicinal cannabis, but only for patients who suffer from severe epilepsy. Now, people who have a prescription can either grow their own plants, get it through a family member or a friend, as long as they are on the government register, or obtain the medicinal plant through the public health system. “This is progress that commits us to keep working to expand rights,” says Salech.