The streaming film, Illegal, recounts one family’s legal battle to bring Real Scientific Hemp Oil™ to Brazil.
Medical Marijuana, Inc.’s Real Scientific Hemp Oil™ (RSHO™) features prominently in a new film on Netflix that reveals how families in Brazil started a grassroots campaign to challenge the Brazilian government for access to CBD hemp oil. An emotional look into the fight for medical cannabis in Brazil, don’t miss the chance to watch Illegal.
2014 was a year of great change in Brazil’s cannabis policy. Unfortunately, that change came riding on the backs of patients suffering from their often life threatening conditions. The film Illegal records the intense emotions surrounding the fight for cannabis legalization in Brazil.
The documentary follows the struggle of the Fischer family to import RSHO™ for their daughter Anny, including an especially poignant scene showing Anny suffer a seizure as her mother, Katiele, is on the phone with ANVISA, the health authority in Brazil, trying to find Anny’s next shipment of RSHO™.
Illegal doesn’t just follow the Fischers, but a number of families and individual patients who have needed cannabis for medical treatments, including for spinal injuries and relief from the effects of chemotherapy. Their grassroots drive for compassionate access sparked a national conversation on medical cannabis reform.
When journalist Tarso Araújo and cinematographer Raphael Erichsen learned of the struggles these families were going through, they decided to make a series of short documentaries that profile these patients and their families. The film allows for the unique experience of seeing the story from the eyes of those battling for access. Hearing these patients and family members tell their own stories makes the film all the more personal and affecting.
Part of this project was the creation of “Campaign Rethink”, a movement to educate and raise awareness for medical marijuana in Brazil. The shorts were then compiled to create the documentary now available online, Illegal. Together, the films show a pattern of fighting against prejudice, bureaucracies, and time itself. Because the seizures endured by these young children can be life threatening, waiting for Brazil’s health authority, ANVISA, to approve the import of CBD hemp oil can be deadly. The sense of hopelessness the parents feel is palpable when faced with the inability to gain access to the products their children need.
HempMeds® Brasil was founded late in 2014 to educate ANVISA and the Brazilian public on the medical properties of cannabis and accelerate the approval process for those in the country in need of RSHO™. Through their efforts the list of approved conditions was expanded from epilepsy to include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic pain and migraines.
“Brazil is a shining example of how a national government has responded to humanitarian interests and has swiftly and diligently passed favorable legislation on behalf of the health and well-being of its people — children in particular,” commented Dr. Stuart W. Titus, CEO of Medical Marijuana, Inc. “We are truly inspired by the swiftness and the capability of the Brazilian government to overcome politics in granting nationwide access to CBD hemp oil products. Their decisive action is a stellar example for the rest of the world — they rewrote history.”
However, history sometimes is made through the suffering of others. Medical Marijuana, Inc. wants to recognize those families that fought for change in cannabis policy in Brazil and countries around the world, even when that change didn’t come fast enough.
Illegal is currently available to stream on Netflix. We invite you to see this film while you have the chance and see the powerful change that came from a mother challenge to import Real Scientific Hemp Oil™ for her daughter.
Visit HempMeds® Brasil or Medical Marijuana, Inc. for more information on accessing CBD hemp oil in Brazil.
