Abrace Esperança celebrates 8 years with nearly 32,000 members
“I never imagined we would get this far, but I knew we wouldn't stop growing,” Cassiano Gomes, executive director and founder of Abrace Esperança.
By Manuela Borges
This week, the Brazilian Association for Cannabis Support (Abrace) celebrated its eighth anniversary. The organization that started national production in 2014 - at that time still in civil disobedience - now has precisely 31,524 members and employs more people than any other company in Paraíba. “Today, no industry here in the state generates more jobs than Abrace. Entrepreneurs have goals and limits; Abrace does not. Today, we have 180 employees and want to hire 10 more,” celebrates the executive director and founder of Abrace Esperança, Cassiano Gomes.
The trigger for this success story, which involves breaking prejudice and democratizing access to cannabis oil, was Cassiano's own mother, who was a victim of a lung infection caused by an acute allergy to mold. “My mother forced me to take action. After seven days in the hospital, she returned home unsteady and very weakened, without appetite. That's when I bought 50 grams of marijuana, put it in a pan with olive oil, and produced the first oil of my life. Then, I gave the oil to my mother at 10 a.m., and by 1 p.m., she was already a different person,” he recalls.
According to Cassiano, only one of his six siblings knew about the experiment. “I only told my sister. My other siblings didn't believe it, but since our mother's health improvement was evident, it was no longer contestable. Since she started using cannabis, she gained weight and quality of life. Because of this allergic condition, my mother ended up developing a sequela. Thanks to cannabis, this inflammation in her bronchi was controlled, and she never needed hospitalization again,” explains the founder of Abrace.
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Cassiano shares that he learned about the benefits of cannabis oil when he lived in the United States between 2001 and 2003. “At that time, there was a very strong campaign for the use of cannabis in patients diagnosed with cancer. In California, it was already legalized. They are 30 years ahead of us. So, in the United States, it was already possible to learn about extraction methods and the positive results of the medicinal use of the plant,” recalls the executive director.
From a “backyard kitchen,” Abrace Esperança has gained recognition across Brazil and has collected several successful stories of medicinal cannabis use. One of them is that of seven-year-old Analu. Her mother, Grazy Alves, shares that her daughter, diagnosed with West Syndrome, had been given up on by the neurologist when she was two years old. “My daughter was taking seven different medications to control the seizures, and nothing worked. At its peak, she had 300 epilepsy seizures in one day. Can you imagine? I was going into despair.” It was then that Grazy decided to make an appeal on social media asking for help. The news that the Tibau do Sul (RN) City Hall would no longer provide the high-cost medication had shaken the family.
“An angel named Maíza sent me a message talking about cannabis. She told me to look for Abrace. And I went! My daughter and I, with courage. There we were welcomed, received medical care, a prescription, and the oil. It was a miracle! The evolution was very rapid! Today, my daughter is free; she no longer has seizures! Analu stopped taking that bunch of medications and is only using cannabis. Although she lost her vision due to the medication she was taking, today she studies! It is a great pleasure to be able to take her to school. Abrace brought my smile back! Cannabis saves lives! People need to know this,” emotionally shares the child's mother.
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In addition to rare diseases, cannabis - in different formats (oils, capsules, gummies, vaporized) - has been used in the treatment of epilepsy, seizures, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, anxiety, depression, insomnia, schizophrenia, chronic pain, inflammation, and conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), to name a few examples. “In Brazil, there are 55 million people with untreatable diseases, and cannabis can provide quality of life for these patients,” counts Cassiano.
Reports of improvement, whether empirical or scientific, have transformed this demand into an upward curve and required the judiciary to take a stance. In 2017, Abrace won a court injunction authorizing the cultivation for the medicinal use of its members in the form of oil. The organization was the first in the country to gain this right, which is still not fully consolidated. Last year, this judicial authorization was even overturned but was restored due to public pressure and the impossibility of guaranteeing the supply of the medication to patients at affordable prices, except through the cultivation of the association itself.
“We have never had parameters to determine the size of our cultivation. Today, we have established the measure of one plant per patient. That is, we currently have 32,000 plants. All traceable,” he explains. According to Cassiano, Abrace has been structuring itself to meet the requirements of the law that is being drafted in the National Congress. In this case, PL 399/2015, which was approved in the Special Commission of the Chamber of Deputies in June last year and is awaiting a vote in the house's plenary. “We know that Arthur Lira, the president of the Chamber, has sat on the project. We believe that the next elected legislature may advance this law. Today, we do not see prospects for approval, for now. We know that the text is not ideal, but it can still be improved. I understand that there are differences between associations, and therefore, of course, rules should be created according to the number of members,” Gomes states.
The founder of Abrace Esperança also argues that, beyond the legislative, Anvisa also needs to take on its responsibilities and regulate the work of associations being developed in the country more precisely. “Today, we understand that Anvisa's intent has always been to protect patients, which is why the rules are stringent. Everything has a reason. And this should not be an impediment but an obligation. We must comply with good practices, implement plant traceability, and ensure quality control. This is Anvisa's greatest requirement. Of course, we need time to adapt because no one can adjust overnight. But an association with 30 patients cannot be treated the same as one with 10,000, for example,” he reflects.
To meet the intense demand generation, Abrace is structuring to create a headquarters in São Paulo, as most of the members are from the state, according to the organization. “We seek all types of support, whether financial, logistical, or technical-scientific. The model of associations is here to stay because we guarantee access to oil in a more democratic way. Abrace and Apepi have shown that this model is viable. We climbed the mountain of stone, made the trail, and inserted the clips. Now, we just need to tie the rope and climb,” analyzes the founder of Abrace Esperança.
Another new development from Abrace is the inauguration of its own laboratory where production analyses are conducted. The Dr. Pedro Pierro, scientific director of this portal and one of the first prescribing doctors of the association, shares that he participated in the eight-year anniversary of the organization in Paraíba and learned about the restructuring of the association. “I had the opportunity to see the laboratory, I spoke with the pharmacists. I learned about the entire process, from where the bottles are analyzed to how the inspection is conducted. Abrace is not a company; it is an association. The calculations there are done by hand; there are no supercomputers. There is a double-checking process; everything is reviewed twice. The people who work there take pride in being part of this story. And I had the same feeling, pride in being part of Abrace's story,” states Dr. Pierro.
Beyond oil production, Cassiano mentions that he is developing a platform - Legacy - to assist in management, control, transparency of expenses, traceability, and production of other associations. “We created a startup to avoid conflicts with Abrace's interests, and 24 associations are already testing this platform, which is in the development phase. The best part of Abrace is passing knowledge to other associations. If it’s not like that, Abrace will explode. If we continue at this pace, in three years we will have 100,000 members, and that compromises management and the quality of service. That’s why we encourage the arrival of new associations. It is my duty to help them grow. It is a great challenge to be a pioneer. We have taken on many responsibilities and faced many challenges. It is difficult but rewarding,” defends Gomes.