Interactions among growers, users, and researches around medical cannabis uses in Argentina

Abstract

In the context of a process of re-medicalization of cannabis that has rapidly led to its legalization in most European countries, Canada, more than half of the United States, Australia, parts of Asia, and several Latin American countries, Argentina enacted Law 27.350 on medicinal cannabis in 2017. Since then, some local academics and doctors have begun outreach and research activities on the subject, under collaborative dynamics and co-production of knowledge with growers and patients associations. This work aims to understand the motivations and interests of researchers and users (growers, patients) to collaborate with each other and generate research and outreach agendas on this topic, considering the resources and knowledge exchanged, their collaborative dynamics, their conceptualizations, systematizations, forms of inquiry and replication of experiences, and the conflicts or problems that arise. Based on the analysis of in-depth interview material and the review of institutional documents, brochures, scientific articles, and observations, the dynamics of hybridization, co-production, and re-signification of knowledge formed in the interactions between users and academics are analyzed.