Germany to Legalize Medicinal Cannabis

Although it might be a slow process and we all know that it will take a while for it to extend throughout the whole world, every day more countries are deciding to accept cannabis as a substance that has a huge amount of medicinal properties. Germany has approved the legalization of medicinal cannabis, meaning that therapeutic uses of marijuana are being brought to Europe at last.

Many countries around the world have expanded their minds and legalized cannabis, both recreationally and medicinally, without being called a drug addict. In Europe there’s still quite a taboo surrounding cannabis use, as it hadn’t been considered by any governments until now.

German Gröhe, Germany’s Minister of Health, and the person in charge of making the announcement, states that this isn’t getting anyone any closer to legalizing recreational use; it is simply the legalization of medicinal cannabis for people that really need it.

The law already permits some users to pick up medicinal cannabis from pharmacies, but only in extremely chronic situations. The patient gets a permission slip that works as a kind of prescription, but it’s incredibly hard to get; only 500 people in all of Germany have managed to get this kind if permission slip. With this new law, doctors will be able to decide who gets prescriptions and who doesn’t, as long as the patients are in a grace situation and they have no other alternative for their illness.

Last year the German government imported 94kg of marijuana for medicinal use, 90% from Holland. This year Germany plans on being ready to grow their own cannabis without having to buy it, and large areas are already being prepared for exactly that.

Another innovation that will come to be with this law is that private insurers will pay for the medicine, whereas before those who needed it had to pay for it themselves from their own pocket. In Germany you can find marijuana in specialized pharmacies at about 18-25 euro per gram, which means that patients were spending an average of 500 euros a month. Another amazing side to this law is that new studies into cannabis will be financed with the objective to discover more amazing therapeutic uses for this plant.

Laws are not helpful for the average smoker though, due to how cannabis is considered a dangerous drug and its use should be purely medicinal, restricted for those who do not have a serious enough illness. In Germany growing your own plants is strictly prohibited unless it’s for therapeutic uses and you have a special permission slip from the Federal Institute of Medicine and Sanitary Products.

A lot of consumers are asking themselves if this is just the first step in Europe going through a similar process to the United States, although it seems like that is probably not the case, at least not yet. The German government has been pretty clear on the fact that they are, under no circumstances, going to legalize recreational cannabis. The rest of European governments still haven’t said anything about the issue.

Translation: Ciara Murphy