Poland became the newest country of the European Union country to legalize marijuana for medical use on July 20, 2017. Last week, Poland’s medical marijuana program commenced just about three months after President Andrjez signed the bill into law. Yet, patients may find the country in shortage as there is no domestic grow program in place.
Doctor Marek Bachanski is the country’s leading medical marijuana practitioner and a pediatric neurologist who has doubts about the new program. Bachanski stated, “Polish patients will have very limited access to this type of treatment because we don’t produce medical marijuana domestically”.
Since Poland does not domestically grow marijuana, the pharmacies will have to import raw smarijuana process it on site. The new law permits about 90 percent of Poland’s pharmacies to produce marijuana medications, but restricts the growth of plants. Because of this, product will come with higher price tags.
Although, marijuana is currently being imported from the Netherlands, Bachanski believes that imports are already inadequate to handle the demand from prospective patients. MP Piotr Liroy-Marzec, one of the bill’s writers, continues to fight for the change to permit domestic cultivation. This is opposed by Polish lawmakers as hey foresee growing marijuana domestically may lead to unwanted recreational legalization.
Other than the cultivation issue, the law is generous. It eradicates THC restrictions on cannabis oil. Patients now have access CBD or THC dominant cannabis oil. Poland’s medical marijuana law was created with the ill in mind. The law doesn’t list specific conditions and makes legal marijuana treatments accessible those with chronic pain, nausea and vomiting related to cancer treatments, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and other drug-resistant conditions. The open-ended language of the law was intentional as lawmakers envisioned the expansion of usage for other conditions in the future.
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