The Associação Mães pela Canábis (Mothers for Cannabis) will take to the streets of Lisbon, on Sunday, April 2, under the motto "A plant for everyone, for everyone!", in a march that claims universal access to cannabis and hemp in Portugal.

The gathering will take place in Largo de Camões, at 3:20 pm, and heads for the Assembly of the Republic, at 4:20 pm, hoping to "aggregate hundreds of people from all over the country".

In a statement, the association begins by explaining that "in Portugal there are already thousands of patients, including many children, who successfully use oils and other cannabis derivatives to help in the treatment of pathologies such as epilepsy, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis or cancer, among others".

"Although medicinal use in Portugal has already been regulated since 2018, the vast majority of patients still do not have access to cannabis", accuses Mães pela Canábis, whose leader, Paula Mota, has a daughter with Refractory Epilepsy.

"Paula represents dozens of mothers who are outraged by the government's inertia in finding solutions for families in this situation", reads the statement.


Portugal as a cannabis producer


In it, the leader of the movement is quoted: "Although Portugal is one of the largest cannabis producers in the world, with more than 30 companies already licensed in the country, there are no options for our children in pharmacies, and neither can we cultivate it for ourselves so we are forced to resort to the illicit market! In addition, the majority of doctors are still not prescribing and the curricula of the Faculties of Medicine have not been updated with the Endocannabinoid System (vast network of chemical signals and cell receptors that interact with each other in our brain and body).

Mothers for Cannabis also accused "the continued criminalization of people who grow at home and who have been arrested and accused of drug trafficking for having only a few plants for their own consumption".

"The Mothers for Cannabis Movement calls on all families, patients, caregivers, farmers, hemp traders and all cannabis users to gather in Lisbon and march together to show the Government and the country that access to this plant is a fundamental right for all", concludes the association in the note.