According to a report by AFP, there are more than 60 companies in Portugal currently authorised to grow, produce and distribute medical cannabis products, with a further 170 having applied for permission in the pipeline.

Last year Portugal exported 12 tons of cannabis-based medical products, mainly to Germany, Poland, Spain and Australia.

“We should be the new El Dorado of medical cannabis production,” said agronomist José Martins in an interview with AFP. “No other country in Europe has better environmental conditions”.

José Tempero, the medical director at Tilray, a Canadian multinational that set up a cannabis farm in the country added: “Portugal is clearly at the forefront of European countries producing cannabis for medical use”.