STJ highlights completion of most stages to regulate the cultivation of medicinal cannabis

The First Section of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) extended until March 31, 2026, the deadline for the Union to regulate the planting of industrial cannabis for exclusively medicinal and pharmaceutical purposes.

By setting the date as the deadline for compliance with the court order, the collegiate approved a new action plan and established that the Union and the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) must report the execution of the intermediate stages outlined in the schedule within five days after the completion of each one.

The original deadline was until May 19, 2025, as established by the public law section in the judgment of Competence Assumption Incident 16 (IAC 16) – which considered it legally possible to grant health authorization for the planting and commercialization of industrial hemp by legal entities, for exclusively medicinal and pharmaceutical purposes.

Responding to a request from the Union and Anvisa, the deadline was first extended to September 30 of the same year. On that occasion, the applicants presented a plan with several ongoing initiatives, as well as other strategic actions to be carried out according to the defined deadline.

Most of the stages outlined in the plan have been completed

The new request for extension pointed out that five of the nine actions proposed in the plan have been completed. Regarding the unfulfilled actions (items 6 to 9), the applicants argued that it was not possible to meet the deadline