There are many people and companies who stand to benefit from the upcoming legalization of medical marijuana in Mexico. First and foremost, the benefactors will be patients who need cannabis treatment now.
Coming a close second are companies in the MMJ space who stand to make incredible gains from medical legalization, and right now, there is only one company in Mexico poised for a huge win. That corporation is the American firm Medical Marijuana Inc.
Medical Marijuana Inc. is the first publicly traded cannabis company in America. The corporation also started HempMeds Mexico, their distribution arm for CBD products in the Latin nation. They were the first and are currently the only legal supplier of cannabis-based products in Mexico.
Marijuana.com sat down with CEO Dr. Stuart Titus to discuss the future of cannabis in Mexico and the role his company will be playing.
It must be incredible to see marijuana traded as a public commodity, with you and I having grown up in the era of prohibition.
It’s been absolutely amazing. It’s been exciting to see the growth here in the U.S. but also some of the Canadian licensed producers and the companies raising tremendous amounts of capital.
As of April 28th, Mexico is one signature away from having legal medical cannabis, is that still the case?
That’s still the case as best we understand. Quite exciting. Obviously, President Peña Nieto has changed his opinion on cannabis-based products. I think, in large part, this is due to one of the families that we’ve been able to assist over the last year and a half.
This gentleman, Raul Elizalde, whose daughter Grace went from having these terrible epileptic seizures to now becoming virtually seizure-free. Raul has been a very forward spokesperson. President Peña Nieto has seen how well our products have been received in Mexico since February of 2016.
Your company has been a catalyst for helping the medical marijuana industry move forward in Mexico. Can you outline how that is the case?
We had been servicing a number of families in Brazil, and of course, there are epilepsy children in Mexico whose families saw the great success in Brazil. [So they]  petitioned the government to allow the products in Mexico.
The Mexican Government was very pro-CBD, but because of their unfortunate war on drugs and cartel violence, they were very anti-THC. Our products that we ship to Brazil have a trace of THC, 0.3 or less, but even trace amounts the government of Mexico was very cautious about. They challenged us to develop a fully THC-free version.
So we went to our laboratory facilities in the fall of 2015 and developed this fully THC-free version.
So this was the first-ever CBD oil allowed in Mexico?
Yes, this was the first. It was allowed February 1st, 2016. We are still the only legal cannabis-based product within Mexico today.
It’s fair to say that Medical Marijuana Inc. is poised to benefit greatly with this legalization news in Mexico.
We’re very excited about it because to date we have only been able to bring our [one product,] the THC-free version, into Mexico.
Have you spoken with the President or anyone in the Mexican government about moving forward?
Our President of Mexico Operations has spoken with President Peña Nieto. We’ve talked about moving forward in terms of education for doctors. Coming up towards the end of June I’ll be lecturing in front of about 150 doctors to help them get more familiar with not only CBD but medical cannabis.
More often than not, large corporations are dismissed for having a sole interest in their bottom line. But when speaking to Dr. Titus, you can hear the enthusiasm and passion he holds for his products, which help thousands of patients in desperate need.
Mexico is on the precipice of a whole new dimension of medicine which will help countless lives. It’s clear that the importance of this fact has not been lost on the individuals behind Medical Marijuana Inc.
Photo courtesy of Allie Beckett