Parents of activists defending the legalization of medicinal marijuana announced Monday they filed a lawsuit against Peru's National Police, after officers violently attacked their children in a pacific demonstration in Lima on Saturday.
“We were just marching peacefully when the police started attacking us with tear gas, including our children, regardless the fact that some of them were in a wheelchair,” said Ayde Farfan, a member of the “Looking for Hope."
The group of young patients and their relatives are actively pushing for a bill allowing them to grow marijuana plants at home for medical purposes in cases of serious conditions like epilepsy or Lennox syndrome.
The police also arrested eight activists including the son of Looking for Hope's president, the president of Legaliza Peru and the father of a child who passed away from his condition a few weeks earlier. All those detained were released on Sunday,
Peru's Congress is scheduled to debate a bill legalizing the importation and sale of marijuana for medical purposes on May 17. Although the collective welcomed the initiative, they believe that patients and their relatives should still be allowed to grow their own plants — not just for a cheaper alternative but also so they can grow the plant variety suited to each health condition.