“I heard my son say ‘I love you’ for the first time when I was 8 years old”, says Priscila Guterres Moraes, 41, Levi’s mother. Premature, autistic, and unable to express himself alone, the mother says the boy found new “brain connections” that unlocked his speech after receiving the substances derived from marijuana.

The achievement of incalculable value for parents is a reflection of the struggle for the release of medical cannabis intensified since 2010 in Brazil: the import authorization for the product that guarantees a new life for Priscila’s son was one of more than 70,000 already granted since 2015.

A number even lower than the potential of medicines, according to experts, but which already represents a 15-fold increase in imports in 5 years. An expanding market that promises to treat more than 20 different medical conditions and which already has 18 products authorized for sale in pharmacies across the country.

Levi, Priscilla’s son, is now almost 10 years old. After so many consultations, the mother herself explains in a simplified way what CBD (cannabidiol), one of the substances in cannabis, caused her son: “[He had a brain condition] as if they were disconnected wires… It seems that [with CBD] the connections met, the little threads met”, says Priscila.

This system is directly or indirectly related to a list of conditions, disorders, or diseases described in different studies with cannabis derivatives. They are in the spotlight of science and even the international pharmaceutical market: refractory epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, ASD, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.

Source: G1