Over one thousand seriously ill people are allowed to buy marijuana for therapy

Around 1000 people in Germany are allowed to buy cannabis for self-therapy
Marijuana is not used for intoxication but also for medical purposes. According to a media report, around 1,000 people in Germany are allowed to buy cannabis for self-therapy. In the future, there should also be marijuana on health insurance.

Marijuana for the treatment of pain
Marijuana is not only consumed as an intoxicant. In medicine, it has long been used, inter alia, for the treatment of chronic pain or against spastic paralysis and convulsions in multiple sclerosis (MS). Also the effect against complaints such as nausea and vomiting is scientifically proven. In addition, cannabis should be helpful against migraine, as US researchers in the journal "Pharmacotherapy" reported.

In Germany, around 1,000 people have an exemption to buy marijuana for medical self-therapy in a pharmacy. (Image: rgbspace / fotolia.com)

Exceptional permission to purchase cannabis in the pharmacy
Last summer, 90 percent of Germans said in a survey for easier access to cannabis for patients.

As reported by the news agency dpa, at present 1,004 people in Germany have an exemption to buy marijuana for medical self-therapy in a pharmacy.

This emerges from a response from the German government to a parliamentary inquiry, the newspapers write to the Funke Mediengruppe.

Accordingly, 452 licenses were issued in the current year alone. On 6 April, the Federal Administrative Court had allowed the first patient in Germany to grow cannabis for medical purposes. Meanwhile, two people have permission.

Abolish bureaucratic hurdles
The Left Party, which made the request, calls for a more liberal practice. "Who really wants to help cannabis patients, must abolish all bureaucratic hurdles," said the drug political spokesman for the party, Frank Tempel, according to dpa. "The less complicated the regulation, the better for the patients."

In the future, pain patients should be able to get marijuana on prescription in the pharmacy. The federal government had launched a bill in May.

As Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe (CDU) said at the time, the cost of marijuana as a medicine for the seriously ill should be covered by their health insurance. However, a general cannabis release is rejected by the government. (Ad)