Chileans grow own medical marijuana as weed ban loosens | Reuters

SANTIAGO Chileans are increasingly growing their own cannabis for medical purposes as the conservative South American nation begins loosening legal prohibitions on the formerly illegal plant.

In 2015, Chile legalized the use of medical marijuana, following a wave of other Latin American nations that are slowly making the cultivation, distribution, and consumption of cannabis easier.

Earlier in May, pharmacies in the capital city of Santiago began selling cannabis-based medicines, the first time such treatments have been offered by drugstores in Latin America.

Boosters of the plant are making sure Chileans with chronic pain have the know-how to grow marijuana, even as doing so occupies a legal gray area.

In Santiago on Friday, Chile’s pro-cannabis Daya Foundation hosted a workshop teaching those with medical conditions how to grow the plant on their own.

Last year, the foundation inaugurated the largest medical marijuana farm in Latin America under the supervision of Chile’s Agriculture and Livestock Service.

“Almost a century of prohibition filled us with misinformation and, worse, stopped millions of people who could have received relief from…