La terapia empírico-popular de cannabis en Argentina en un contexto de biomedicalización y violencia epistémica

Nicolás José Lavagnino; Anahi Sy; Luis Ernesto Acosta

doi:10.56294/sctconf2023182

Conference abstract

Published: 2023-04-24

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56294/sctconf2023182

Cannabis empirical-popular therapy in Argentina in a context of biomedicalization and epistemic violence

Abstract

Biomedicine, as a hegemonic model of disease, has tended to subalternize, dismiss and criticize alternative health care strategies. It would operate in this process a certain epistemic violence that denies or disqualifies other knowledge, practices and ways of attending health care. The production of cannabis for therapeutic purposes, initially developed by people who sought treatment to problems that biomedicine did not solve, is an example of this. The current legislation in Argentina is an advance in the sense of not criminalizing the cultivation and use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes; However, it also enables a production that tends to standardize and industrialization of a product, while documented empirical-popular practice on this therapy involves the development of unique therapeutic experiences.

In that scenario, on the one hand, there is a certain denial of the validity of empirical-popular knowledge of cannabis therapy, constituting epistemic violence that sometimes promotes institutional violence. On the other hand, since the standardized production of therapies in the biomedicalization process tends to homogenization and industrialization, it can lead to the gradual abandonment or replacement of artisanal practices. We ask ourselves then: will it be the process of production and pharmacological standardization (in direct link with biomedical logic) respectful of these artisanal and popular practices of cannabis therapy? What will happen to those people who artisanally produce their therapeutic value oils when patented drugs legally circulate? Who/is the heritage about that knowledge and practices of popular origin of which scientists and pharmaceutical companies appropriate?

In this inquiry, we maintain that alternative health production modes have the potential to create other ways of thinking about health-disease, which are counterhegemonic and decolonial, to the extent that it is based on local problems and needs.

Keywords:

Cannabis,

Argentina,

Health Care,

Health Strategies,

Pharmaceutical Preparations,

Marijuana Use,

How to Cite

Lavagnino NJ, Sy A, Acosta LE. Cannabis empirical-popular therapy in Argentina in a context of biomedicalization and epistemic violence. Salud, Ciencia y Tecnología - Serie de Conferencias [Internet]. 2023 Apr. 24 [cited 2024 Jun. 26];2:182. Available from: https://conferencias.saludcyt.ar/index.php/sctconf/article/view/182

Copyright Notice

The article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Unless otherwise stated, associated published material is distributed under the same licence.

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IV Jornadas de Fundamentos y Aplicaciones de la Interdisciplina (JFAI2023)

Vol. 2 (2023)

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