Switzerland: the Federal Council wants to facilitate access to medical cannabis

More than a year ago, the The Swiss National Council adopted a motion an unwritten rule that facilitates access to medical cannabis for patients. The Federal Council, the Confederation’s executive body, now wishes to amend the Narcotics Act to enshrine this rule in law.

Currently, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) issues authorizations on a case-by-case basis to applicants. The office issued 3,000 such authorizations last year for patients with cancer or multiple sclerosis. The idea would be to allow doctors to prescribe cannabis directly to patients.

A majority of political parties support making cannabis available by prescription. Medcan, the Swiss medical cannabis association, recommends creating a regulatory body dedicated to medical cannabis rather than assigning this role to Swissmedic, the Swiss agency responsible for overseeing the market for therapeutic products. It also calls for cannabis to be reimbursed on the same basis as other medications, which is currently very rarely the case.

«The main obstacle to automatic reimbursement is that scientific evidence of efficacy is currently insufficient and that the findings of existing studies are sometimes contradictory,», explained the Swiss government last June.

Pharmacies and CBD

Swiss pharmacies can already sell CBD when it is prescribed by a doctor. Only the medication Sativex, which also contains THC, is approved for patients with multiple sclerosis, subject to certain conditions.

A recent circular from the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AFMPS) authorizes However, the use of «raw materials such as cannabidiol containing traces of THC» is permitted for compounded medications, provided that the patient’s exposure to THC does not exceed 1 microgram per kilogram of body weight per day. Pharmacists may therefore use pharmaceutical-grade CBD isolate to make pills or ointments.