Pope-Endorsed Candidate Running Against Corporate Cannabis And Monoculture In Argentina's Pres Elections

The National Electoral Chamber of Argentina made official the calendar for the 2023 elections. The Primaries will be held on August 13 and the general elections on October 22.

One notable candidate in the election is Juan Grabois, a lawyer, educator and part of the Union of Popular Economy Workers (UTEP), which advocates for the recognition of workers in the informal sector that make up roughly 13 million jobs across Argentina.

Grabois is a well-known follower of Pope Francis and supports policies promoted by the current Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. 

Pope Francis met Grabois at a sermon for immigrants, victims of sex trafficking, and trash collectors in 2008. Since 2014, the Pope has presided over the "World Meeting of Popular Movements" in defense of the right to land, housing and decent work, an agenda promoted by Grabois in Argentina.

Pope Francis has a close relationship with Grabois to the extent that he appointed him in 2021 to the new Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, a department of the Roman Curia that works with marginalized populations such as migrants, refugees, and those subjected to slavery -a priority for his papacy.

Now Grabois seeks to be the sole candidate for president of the country in the upcoming primary elections and advocates for agroecology, a socioeconomic development framework that promotes fair profits for small farmers and is environmentally friendly.

A Fan Of Pope Francis' Philosophy

Gabrois has recently published a book called "The Worsts," which challenges the stereotype of the mobilized poor as lazy, violent and easily manipulated by politicians. Instead, he points to the organization of informal workers as an alternative to social inequality.

The book heavily features teachings from Pope Francis and drug abuse as an issue arising from the cultural paradigm of consumerism. Grabois argues that some people consume so much that they are devastating the planet, echoing the Pope's warnings.

Grabois also critiques traditional harm reduction policies and the idea of "substance abuse disorder,” as "a euphemism that eases the conscience of the liberal middle class."

"Behind every euphemism, there is a crime, Pope Francis once told popular movements. ‘Substance abuse disorder’ is one of them," says Grabois.

Instead, he prefers to talk about addictions and stigma from a Christian perspective and is against the promotion of cannabis as a lifestyle.

According to Gabrois, “drugs in neighborhoods are a weapon of mass destruction,” and social economy organizations must work to overcome this phenomenon. He emphasizes that the stigmata of drug addiction “should be seen as a sign (...) to show the world the damage of toxicity.”

Not A Fan Of Weed

Grabois insists that the projection of cannabis as a spectacle of relaxation, friendship, and responsibility is part of a liberal agenda that loses focus in the social context of social abandonment and inequality.

"Those who consume without problems or those who suffer from white people's problems are not the general paradigms," Grabois wrote. “They tend to have a liberal position on drug use because for them it does not represent a great risk but rather a recreation."

When referring to the recent legalization of medical cannabis and dispensaries in Argentina, Grabois said the move is part of an agenda of liberal intellectuals that “have never seen a poor person,” seek to nationalize “small pleasures,” and “give large regulatory frameworks to big businesses.”

"Who can be against a plant that relieves pain? But... be careful, we have to read the laws carefully. Grabois is referring to the medical cannabis law in Argentina which, according to him, "promotes extensive cultivation without limit of area or tonnage to be processed and darkness reigns regarding the use of GMOs."

What’s Next For Cannabis In Argentina?

Argentina’s national cannabis agency will release the rules for cannabis operations in 1H 2023. It is expected that the rules will have a segmented approach to address the heterogeneous development of Argentina’s rural regions.

Big pharma operations will have a green light, as well as hemp growers with industrial purposes. However, the current administration has insisted on the need for regulations that allow small farmers to transition to cannabis. Thus, a ‘short’ or ‘simplified supply chain’ oriented toward the internal market could be regulated in the upcoming months.

Photo Credits: Juan Grabois (Canna Obscura on Shutterstock and Esquerda.net on Wikimedia Commons).