THE use of cannabis for medicinal reasons has been approved by Spain’s government.
It will be restricted to prescriptions by specialists in hospitals to be used for ailments where other drugs are not effective and will be dispensed by hospital pharmacies.
Cannabis will still not be available in general chemists and cannot be prescribed by family doctors.
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The drug has been scientifically proven to be effective for some specific clinical conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, severe forms of epilepsy, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, and chronic pain.
The products must have a defined composition of the two active ingredients of medicinal cannabis: THC (which has psychoactive effects) or CBD, which is already used in a medicine sold in pharmacies for refractory epilepsy.
Once the approved AEMPS list is announced, pharmacy companies interested in developing standardised cannabis medication can submit an application to be authorised.
The AEMPS will assess whether they meet a quality criteria and, if so, it will be authorised and details published in a register.
Carola Perez, president of the Spanish Observatory of Medicinal Cannabis told the El Pais newspaper that it was a historic decision.
“All of the patients who were waiting for this are celebrating,” he said.
Perez believes that it opens the door to using cannabis to treat ailments such as endometriosis or fibromyalgia, where traditional medication does not work as well as it should.
He added that are still ‘many questions to be answered’ which will not be clarified until the AEMPS publishes its list of conditions that can be treated by cannabis.
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