Seized marijuana as medicine only in SC? Topic also becomes a project in the Federal Senate

A proposal presented by Senator Luis Carlos Heinze (PP-RS) foresees a new destination for cannabis seized in police operations: the production of medicines. The measure aims to create a solution for the high cost of treatments and to take advantage of a material that is currently destroyed.

The Bill No. 4,471/2025, awaiting dispatch, amends the Drug Law to allow the use of the plant in the manufacture of drugs, provided it meets minimum quality standards. These criteria would be established by the federal health authority, such as the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).

Concerns in SC's Processing

While the proposal is being discussed in Brasília, a similar bill in Santa Catarina awaits deliberation, but with a negative opinion from the Committee on Constitution and Justice (CCJ). In the session on September 9, the rapporteur, Deputy Mauro de Nadal, understood that the destination of seized materials is the responsibility of the Union. All parliamentarians followed his vote.

With the negative opinion in the CCJ, the bill goes straight to the plenary. If the opinion is overturned, it returns to be processed in the Justice Committee and, in another resolution, will be analyzed by the remaining three committees.

 Deputy Paulinha (Podemos), the author of the proposal, explained that the text is aimed only at research and the production of medicines. "I am confident that, with dialogue, we will make progress," she added.

Economy and Social Impact

According to Senator Heinze, just last year, over 1.4 million kilograms of cannabis were seized in Brazil. "With one million kilograms of viable cannabis, we could produce medicines that could benefit 30 to 80 thousand families," Heinze told the Senate.

He estimates a savings of "150 to 200 million reais" for public coffers. The project now awaits dispatch to begin its processing in the Senate.

Technical and Regulatory Challenges

A technical note from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), cited in the justification of the bill, warns that a "very careful work is needed to ensure the congruence of the results". 

For this reason, the project conditions production on health inspection. The goal is to create a legal basis that provides legal certainty to the measure and promotes the conduct of more scientific studies on the subject.

"Instead of discarding substances with therapeutic potential, the State can turn them into pharmaceutical inputs, converting a product of crime into a resource of high social and economic value," justifies the senator's office in the project document.