Poland legalizes the medical use of cannabis

On Thursday, Polish MPs voted to legalize the medical use of cannabis. 440 MPs voted in favor, 2 against and one abstained, according to the daily newspaper Wprost.

The future law aims to give patients access to cannabis-based medical preparations with a doctor's prescription. Domestic agricultural production is still prohibited. For the time being, therefore, the raw material will be imported from abroad.

The project had been presented in February 2016 by Piotr Marzec-Liroy, a former Polish rapper, at the time an MP for the anti-system party Kukiz’15, and now an independent MP. The initial draft also envisaged allowing self-cultivation, but this possibility was rejected.

The law still has to be signed by the Polish President before it comes into force. Until now, Poles have been able to obtain reimbursement for certain imported medicines containing cannabis, following complex procedures (individual request from the patient and authorization from the Ministry of Health).

Poland made progress on the subject 2 years ago after a Warsaw doctor declared that he was treating some of his patients in a children's hospital with medical cannabis products.

Poland is expected to make rapid progress in setting up local production of cannabis for the medical industry.