Portugal: Parliament approves the legalization of medical cannabis

Last Friday, the Portuguese Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill to legalize medical cannabis. Only one party, the center-right CDS - Parti Populaire, abstained from voting.

The bill will authorize the prescription of cannabis-based medicines, from oils to dried flowers, to treat chronic pain, post-traumatic stress syndromes, the side effects of chemotherapy, among other pathologies, and only if conventional treatments have not worked. A first version of the law authorized self-cultivation for patients, but was rejected.

Medicines will be available in pharmacies on prescription from a doctor, and must have been authorized by Infarmed, the French National Authority for Medicines and Health Products. The latter had authorized last year the installation of a medical cannabis plantation in partnership with Tilray, a Canadian cannabis producer who spent almost $30 million.

The bill now heads to the desk of Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Souza to become law. It should come into force on July 1.

In January of this year, a open letter signed by a hundred doctors, nurses, psychologists, researchers and health officials, called for the legalization of cannabis for therapeutic use: «The Cannabis plant has many medical effects that can and must be put to good use. Legalization would improve the quality of life of many people and better access to the treatment most appropriate to their health condition. «