Association welcomes cannabis for pain patients

Association welcomes cannabis cultivation for medicinal purposes

07/27/2014

A few days ago, the Cologne administrative court for many pain patients a long-awaited verdict like. Under certain conditions, it is now legal to grow cannabis for medical purposes, if this is their own use. However, patients must meet specific conditions so that cannabis cultivation is not monitored by the police or the judiciary.

The German Hemp Association welcomes the clear judgment of the VG Köln on the self-cultivation of cannabis for therapeutic purposes. In their ruling, the judges make it clear that three of the plaintiffs have exhausted all treatment alternatives as well as adequate safeguards for cannabis cultivation in their own home. Thus, the discretion of the Federal Office for Drugs and Medical Devices to refuse to accept applications, even more, the association said in a report.

This ranks in a variety of previous decisions on the subject of cannabis as medicine, in which courts repeatedly dismissed negative decisions of the BfArM, as the reasons of the BfArM were inadequate. Some of the nearly 300 people who have a special permit in Germany for the purchase of cannabis from the pharmacy, had in the past made applications for low-cost home-grown food in their home.

The self-cultivation of cannabis is the cheapest way to relieve their suffering for patients who depend on cannabis. The cannabis from the pharmacy at 15 to 25 euros per gram is simply priceless for many patients. Seriously ill people, who often have little or no health-related ability to work, can not afford their medical treatment in this way. In addition, only four types of cannabis are available in German pharmacies, and greater variety would help many people in search of the right strain for their disease.

Politicians from all parties are aware of the problems of patients with the supply of cannabis. This was revealed at a hearing in the Health Committee of the German Bundestag in May 2012, but also the current Federal Drug Commissioner Mortler said in the run-up to today's verdict: "I mean, and this is my personal opinion, which we think in the field of cannabis as medicine quite deeper in order to give even more people the chance to approve the whole thing via a medical certificate, or via application "

Unfortunately, there have been no changes in favor of the patients. A request by the Greens in the last legislative period was rejected with the votes of CDU and SPD. "We urge the politicians to finally take the concerns of the patients seriously, as a first step is the self-cultivation to approve.Also it requires a relaxation of the criteria for a special permit for the purchase of cannabis for use in the context of a medically supervised and accompanied self-therapy" said Maximilian Plenert from DHV. "Today's verdict is yet another positive sign, but not the first." Already at the end of 2012, OVerwG Münster ruled in a similar case that a permit for self-cultivation can not be fundamentally rejected, but since then there has been no progress from the political point of view. It is a scandal that the BfArM has been suing the authorities for years unsuccessfully, denying their medicine to sick people, and politics has to act now - seriously ill people can not wait years before conservative politicians abandon their traditional prejudices, "said Florian Rister DHV.

In the medium term, cannabis as a medicine, as well as all other medicines for patients and doctors in the context of freedom from therapy must be a treatment option that would be reimbursed by the health insurance companies in the event of therapeutic success or should be made affordable through self-cultivation and patient collective for those affected. (Sb, pm)