90 percent of Germans demand cannabis for patients

90 percent of Germans want to make it easier for patients to access cannabis
Although cannabis has also been used for a long time as a medicine in Germany, it is certainly not made easy for those affected in this country. According to a survey, a large majority of Germans demand easier access to cannabis for patients. 90 percent said that.

Marijuana helps with various diseases
Although cannabis has long been used as a medicinal product in this country, other countries in this area are significantly further. For example, cannabis was recently legalized for cancer patients in Chile. For a long time there has been a lot of controversy in Germany over whether to release hemp. Its effectiveness is scientifically proven, among other things, in nausea and vomiting or in cachexia, a disease in which it comes to extreme underweight by heavy emaciation. According to a report by the dts news agency, most Germans would welcome it if patients were made easier to get marijuana.

The majority of Germans are in favor of releasing cannabis when it is used for medical purposes. (Image: Mykola Mazuryk-fotolia)

Legal purchase of marijuana is almost impossible for patients
For example, in a representative Infratest survey for the news magazine Der Spiegel, 90 percent of respondents favored easier access to cannabis for all patients, provided it helps alleviate their symptoms. As the magazine reports, it is so far difficult or even impossible for German patients to legally obtain marijuana. Thus, the Federal Opium Office has so far granted nationwide only 449 patients a permit for the purchase of medicinal hemp from the pharmacy. In addition, the Cologne administrative court in the summer of last year had passed a judgment that allowed legal cannabis cultivation for pain patients.

Germany lags behind and pleads guilty
In other countries, the situation is much better. In Israel, over 20,000 and more than 50,000 patients in Canada have a license to purchase hemp for medical reasons. Millions of people in the US are now using "medical cannabis", which can be useful for cancer and pain patients, people with HIV, and people with multiple sclerosis (MS) or Crohn's disease. As the hemp physician Franjo Grotenhermen explained in the "mirror", Germany with its persistently strict prohibition policy is "guilty of a mass, long-term lack of help".

Ban on marijuana as a noise drug is to endure
However, the survey also showed that most Germans want to adhere to the current ban on marijuana as a noise drug. For example, 59 percent of respondents were in favor of continuing to prosecute cannabis possession. In the age group of 18 to 29-year-olds, however, the release of cannabis with 55 percent an absolute majority. Prohibition has brought little in terms of protection of minors anyway: Germans smoke their first joint with an average of 16 years. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), 150 million people worldwide are intoxicated with hashish and marijuana. (Ad)