Cultivating under a court order today? Here is what the 5 August 2027 ANVISA transition deadline actually requires.
Brazil’s medicinal cannabis cultivation has, for years, lived almost entirely inside the courts. Patient cultivators, family caregivers, and patient associations grew cannabis under individual habeas corpus orders, salvo-conduto decisions, and writs of mandamus because ANVISA had not issued a cultivation framework. Article 28 of RDC 1.013/2026 sets a single hard deadline for everyone in this position: 5 August 2027. By that date, every cultivator currently operating under judicial relief must obtain an Autorização Especial (AE) from ANVISA. After that date, a habeas corpus alone is no longer enough.
This guide explains how the transition pathway works, who it covers, what documentation carries forward into an AE petition, what new obligations attach, and what happens to operators who miss the window. For the broader framework and the AE petition process, see the pillar guide.
Why Does Brazil Have a Habeas Corpus Cannabis Cultivation System in the First Place?
For more than two decades, Brazilian law treated cultivation of Cannabis sativa L. as a controlled-substance offence under Portaria SVS/MS nº 344/1998. ANVISA never published a domestic cultivation rule, so patients could only access cannabis-based products through importation. The courts filled the gap. Individual patients and family caregivers filed habeas corpus petitions arguing that personal medicinal cultivation, conducted under a physician’s prescription and in proportion to the patient’s needs, should not expose them to criminal prosecution. By 2024, thousands of individual orders had been granted, and patient associations such as APEPI and Abrace operated under collective judicial protection to supply cannabinoid extracts to their members at cost.
In November 2024, the Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) issued a unanimous decision in Recurso Especial nº 2024250/PR ordering ANVISA to publish a regulatory framework for domestic medicinal cultivation within a fixed deadline. RDC 1.013/2026, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 3 February 2026, is the direct response, and Article 1 expressly cites the STJ ruling. Article 28’s transition rule exists because the existing universe of judicial cultivators had to be brought into the new framework rather than abandoned.
What Is Article 28 of RDC 1.013 and What Does It Mean for Current Cultivators?
Article 28 is short and is the only provision addressing operators already cultivating under court orders. Read it carefully.
Parágrafo único. O material vegetal produzido pelos estabelecimentos de que trata o caput poderá ser fornecido exclusivamente a fins medicinais e de pesquisa, nos termos previstos nesta Resolução.” RDC 1.013/2026, Art. 28 (DOU Nº 23, 03/02/2026, Seção 1, p. 194)
In English: establishments that were cultivating Cannabis sativa L. by virtue of a judicial decision before the publication of RDC 1.013 have until 5 August 2027 to bring their operations into compliance and obtain an AE. The sole paragraph adds an important guard-rail: plant material produced during the transition window may only be supplied for medicinal and research purposes, on the same terms as the rest of RDC 1.013.
Three things are doing work in that text. First, the date is fixed at 5 August 2027, one year after the rest of RDC 1.013 takes effect on 4 August 2026. Second, the transition is conditioned on holding a prior judicial decision; cultivators without a court order do not get the runway. Third, material grown under a habeas corpus during the transition window must move through the same medicinal and research chain as material produced under an AE.