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The Czech Republic this week awarded its first license for the wholesale import of cannabis but it may do little to help the country's foundering medical marijuana initiative get off the ground half-a-year after such use was made legal. The country's Ministry of Health said Tuesday it had issued a license to the Czech agriculture equipment company Elkoplast Slusovice s.r.o. to import cannabis for pharmaceutical resale to patients who have a doctor's prescription for the drug.
The company said it would import three kilograms of cannabis initially but it remains uncertain when it can launch sales to pharmacies. In the last 16 years cannabis has returned to global pharmacology as an effective palliative treatment for pain, an appetite stimulant to prevent wasting syndrome, as a substitute for hard drugs in detox situations or as a relaxant used to treat spasticity and seizures, among common uses. While medical use of cannabis became legal in April, a lack of willing suppliers and sellers has prevented sales getting underway since. That despite patients and doctors clamoring for the medicine and its medical use having won strong public and political backing.
"The system isn't working at all yet. Other than this supplier, there is no demand because of administrative obstacles by the Ministry of Health," said Dr. Tomas Zabransky, an epidemiologist who advises the European Union, the United Nations and several Czech governments on drug policy. Only imported cannabis is currently legal—it can come from either the Netherlands or Israel—and electronic prescriptions are required for the drug, a major hurdle as no doctors nor pharmacies have installed the costly technology.
This requirement aims to prevent any overlap between medical and illicit use and sales of cannabis, said Dr. Zabransky, a former Research Fellow at John Hopkins University of Baltimore. "If I want to prescribe medical cannabis to my patients, I can't do it," Dr. Zabransky said, explaining that the electronic prescription system has yet to be developed, much less rolled out.
For other pharmaceutical drugs, hand-written prescriptions suffice. Additionally, some ministry officials have said they are concerned that there is a lack of scientific evidence on the use of medical cannabis, and as a result the Health Ministry instructed the country's insurers not to cover any costs for its use. Dr. Zabransky said that even the chairman of the Czech Medical Academy supports medical use of cannabis and that there are hundreds of studies demonstrating the plant's effectiveness.
"It is a powerful symptomatic treatment for very seriously medically ill people. If there weren't clear evidence there would be no Marinol in the United States, no Sativex, no patients in Israel or in 20 states in the U.S.," he said, adding: "What the ministry says is contradictory to all the evidence." All costs for herbal cannabis medications are out-of-pocket expenses for patients.
This presents another hurdle, as most patients who would qualify for a prescription for use of the plant—those with diseases such as Parkinson's, cancer or aids, along with senior citizens seeking relief from other serious illnesses—are usually not employed and have limited financial resources. Eliska Havlickova, a Czech woman suffering from intense spasticity that previously kept her bedridden, said cannabis is the only drug that provides relief and allows her to function, albeit in a wheelchair.
Yet until it becomes reasonably priced and available in pharmacies, she has no option but to buy it illegally. Her doctors unofficially recommended the plant after pharmaceuticals failed to provide relief and led to strongly disabling side effects, she said. The import news follows the Ministry earlier this month awarding privately-held Elkoplast Slusovice and German-based pharmaceutical distributor Phoenix licenses to handle and distribute medical marijuana domestically. Next year the country will begin offering up to 10 licenses for domestic cannabis cultivation to local companies.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Wsj.com
Author: Sean Carney
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Czech Medical Cannabis Unavailable Despite Import License Award - Emerging Europe Real Time - WSJ
The company said it would import three kilograms of cannabis initially but it remains uncertain when it can launch sales to pharmacies. In the last 16 years cannabis has returned to global pharmacology as an effective palliative treatment for pain, an appetite stimulant to prevent wasting syndrome, as a substitute for hard drugs in detox situations or as a relaxant used to treat spasticity and seizures, among common uses. While medical use of cannabis became legal in April, a lack of willing suppliers and sellers has prevented sales getting underway since. That despite patients and doctors clamoring for the medicine and its medical use having won strong public and political backing.
"The system isn't working at all yet. Other than this supplier, there is no demand because of administrative obstacles by the Ministry of Health," said Dr. Tomas Zabransky, an epidemiologist who advises the European Union, the United Nations and several Czech governments on drug policy. Only imported cannabis is currently legal—it can come from either the Netherlands or Israel—and electronic prescriptions are required for the drug, a major hurdle as no doctors nor pharmacies have installed the costly technology.
This requirement aims to prevent any overlap between medical and illicit use and sales of cannabis, said Dr. Zabransky, a former Research Fellow at John Hopkins University of Baltimore. "If I want to prescribe medical cannabis to my patients, I can't do it," Dr. Zabransky said, explaining that the electronic prescription system has yet to be developed, much less rolled out.
For other pharmaceutical drugs, hand-written prescriptions suffice. Additionally, some ministry officials have said they are concerned that there is a lack of scientific evidence on the use of medical cannabis, and as a result the Health Ministry instructed the country's insurers not to cover any costs for its use. Dr. Zabransky said that even the chairman of the Czech Medical Academy supports medical use of cannabis and that there are hundreds of studies demonstrating the plant's effectiveness.
"It is a powerful symptomatic treatment for very seriously medically ill people. If there weren't clear evidence there would be no Marinol in the United States, no Sativex, no patients in Israel or in 20 states in the U.S.," he said, adding: "What the ministry says is contradictory to all the evidence." All costs for herbal cannabis medications are out-of-pocket expenses for patients.
This presents another hurdle, as most patients who would qualify for a prescription for use of the plant—those with diseases such as Parkinson's, cancer or aids, along with senior citizens seeking relief from other serious illnesses—are usually not employed and have limited financial resources. Eliska Havlickova, a Czech woman suffering from intense spasticity that previously kept her bedridden, said cannabis is the only drug that provides relief and allows her to function, albeit in a wheelchair.
Yet until it becomes reasonably priced and available in pharmacies, she has no option but to buy it illegally. Her doctors unofficially recommended the plant after pharmaceuticals failed to provide relief and led to strongly disabling side effects, she said. The import news follows the Ministry earlier this month awarding privately-held Elkoplast Slusovice and German-based pharmaceutical distributor Phoenix licenses to handle and distribute medical marijuana domestically. Next year the country will begin offering up to 10 licenses for domestic cannabis cultivation to local companies.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Wsj.com
Author: Sean Carney
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Czech Medical Cannabis Unavailable Despite Import License Award - Emerging Europe Real Time - WSJ
