Germany is going to legalize cannabis in 2017, according to the German health minister. The German government recently announced that they are going to approve a bill that would allow terminally ill patients who have spoken to doctors and “have no therapeutic alternative” to have access to medical marijuana.
“Our goal is that seriously ill people are looked after to the best of our ability,” Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe stated.
Gröhe added that he would like health insurance companies to pay for the drug if patients can not be helped in any other way. Even then, Marlene Mortler, Germany’s federal drug commissioner warned that cannabis should not be considered completely innocuous.
“The use of cannabis as a medicine within narrow limits is useful and should be explored in more detail,” Mortler stated. “At the same time, cannabis is not a harmless substance, a legalization for private pleasure is not the aim and purpose of this. It is intended for medical use only.”
This step is coming as a number of countries have begun to look into legalization in terms of marijuana, both recreationally as well as medically. Amsterdam in the nearby Netherlands is well known for its light cannabis laws. In North America, Canada’s health minister announced that Canada would be introducing federal marijuana legislation in the spring of 2017. The District of Columbia, Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon in the United States all have allowed recreational cannabis use although it is still illegal under the federal government there.
In addition, Guam, along with over half of the United States allow some type of medical use, the Nation Conference of State Legislatures reports. Further south, Chile recently cultivated the largest legal cannabis field in Latin America. During 2013, Uruguay became the first country to fully legalize cannabis for recreational use.
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