Brazil Has 1 Million Medical Cannabis Patients. Its Biggest Cannabis Fair Is Thinking Bigger ⋆ Patriots Hemp

Brazil just passed one million medical cannabis patients. Latin America’s biggest cannabis fair lands in São Paulo November 20 to 22, and this year the conversation is about hemp, agriculture and industry, not just medicine.

Brazil doesn’t have adult-use cannabis. It doesn’t even have a full domestic cultivation market yet. What it does have, as of June 2026, is more than one million recurring medical cannabis patients, according to market research firm Kaya Mind. That’s 1,012,887 people, spread across roughly 90% of the country’s municipalities.

That number is the backdrop for the fourth edition of ExpoCannabis Brasil, running Friday, November 20 through Sunday, November 22 at the São Paulo Expo. Organizers expect close to 50,000 visitors and 344 exhibitor booths, up 38% from last year, when 45,000 people came through over three days.

Beyond the plant

This year’s theme, “Para Além da Planta,” or beyond the plant, tracks a real regulatory shift. After Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice ordered the federal government and health regulator Anvisa to regulate hemp cultivation for medical and industrial use, Anvisa set rules for controlled cultivation of plants with up to 0.3% THC for the pharmaceutical supply chain, expanded research permissions and opened an experimental framework for patient associations.

The industry is already asking the next question. “What will be done with the stalk? With the fiber? With the seeds? That’s exactly where an enormous opportunity for industry begins,” Kaya Mind CEO Thiago Cardoso said at the fair’s launch. His firm estimates the market could reach R$51 billion (Brazilian reais) a year under broader regulation.

So the fair is widening its tent: agribusiness, hemp construction materials, biotech, veterinary medicine, cosmetics and food, plus institutional participation from Embrapa, Brazil’s public agricultural research agency.

What’s on the program

The program runs across an International Forum, the Dr. Elisaldo Carlini Scientific Congress, workshops, a Knowledge Arena and a literary lounge. A dedicated pharma area lets labs and importers, which face strict limits on consumer advertising, meet health professionals directly. The Cannabis Business Hub, aimed at investors and executives, happens two days earlier, on November 18.

Uruguay, the first country to legalize cannabis nationwide, gets its own spot in the regulatory discussions. The fair was launched at the Uruguayan Consulate in São Paulo.