South Korea: first medical cannabis imports in March

Last November, South Korea legalizes medical cannabis, This is the first country in the Southeast Asian region to allow a legal form of cannabis medication. Last week, the government announced that this legalization would take effect on March 12. The country will therefore open its borders to imports of medical cannabis, but only in the form of pharmaceutical products.

An extremely restrictive program

Although Korean legalization is one of the most liberal cannabis policies in Asia, it remains extremely restrictive compared to European and American medical cannabis programs. The Korean program does not allow the use and cultivation of the cannabis plant as is, but only the importation of pharmaceutical products containing cannabinoids, natural or synthetic, which have already been approved by major world powers. In practice, only Marinol, Cesamet, Sativex and’Epidiolex can be imported.

The program is not only restrictive in terms of authorized products, but also in terms of access to the product. Patients must be suffering from a rare or incurable disease and in a situation of therapeutic failure to hope to have access to cannabis-based treatments. They must submit a dossier accompanied by a doctor's diagnosis and a note from the doctor stating that the medical marijuana is the only suitable treatment option.

A domino effect?

Since the news of Korean legalization, another Asian country, Thailand, legalized and others like the Philippines are seriously considering it. Even Singapore, known for having some of the toughest anti-drug laws in the world, considers legalizing medical cannabis on the same model as Korea: «It is important to differentiate between products containing unprocessed or raw cannabis and pharmaceutical products containing cannabinoids», explain the Ministries of the Interior and Health in a joint statement. Last year, the country invested several million dollars in a research program on medical cannabis.