- AMSTERDAM ( Reuters) -- The
Netherlands will this week become the world's first country to make cannabis
available as a prescription drug in pharmacies to treat chronically ill
patients, a top Dutch health official said on Sunday.
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- The Dutch government has given the country's 1,650 pharmacies
the green light to sell cannabis to sufferers of cancer, HIV, multiple
sclerosis (MS) and Tourette's Syndrome in a ground-breaking acceptance
of the drug's medicinal use.
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- "It's a historic step. What is unique is that we
are making it available on a prescription only basis through pharmacies,"
said Willem Scholten, head of the Office of Medicinal Cannabis at the Dutch
Health Ministry.
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- The Netherlands, where prostitution and the sale of cannabis
in coffee shops are regulated by the government, has a history of pioneering
social reforms. It was also the first country to legalise euthanasia.
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- The government, which recognised many chronically ill
people were already buying cannabis from coffee shops, said it should only
be prescribed by doctors when conventional treatments had been exhausted
or if other drugs had side effects.
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- Two companies in the Netherlands have been given licences
to grow special strains of cannabis in laboratory-style conditions to sell
to the Health Ministry, which in turn packages and labels the drug in small
tubs to supply to pharmacies.
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- The Health Ministry recommends patients dilute the cannabis
-- which will be in the form of dried marijuana flowers from the hemp plant
rather its hashish resin -- in tea or turn it into a spray in a nebulizer.
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- As well as pharmacies, 80 hospitals and 400 doctors will
be allowed to dispense five gram doses of SIMM18 medical marijuana for
44 euros ($48) a tub and more potent Bedrocan at 50 euros.
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- MONOPOLY
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- The government will start distributing to pharmacies
on Monday with a monopoly over wholesale of the drug.
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- Dutch doctors will be allowed to prescribe it to treat
chronic pain, nausea and loss of appetite in cancer and HIV patients, to
alleviate MS sufferers spasm pains and reduce physical or verbal tics in
people suffering Tourette's syndrome.
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- The ministry estimates up to 7,000 people in the Netherlands
have used cannabis for medical reasons, buying it in coffee shops. It said
this could more than double once it is available from pharmacies in pure
medical form.
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- Cannabis has a long history of medical use. It was used
as a Chinese herbal remedy around 5,000 years ago, while Britain's Queen
Victoria is said to have taken cannabis tincture for menstrual pains.
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- But it fell out of favour because of lack of standardised
preparations and the development of more potent synthetic drugs.
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- Critics argue it has not passed sufficient scientific
scrutiny at a time when researchers are trying to determine if it confers
the medical benefits many users claim. Some doctors say it increases the
risk of depression and schizophrenia.
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- The use of cannabis for medical reasons has proved contentious
in many other countries.
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- In July, Canada granted hundreds of seriously ill patients
a dispensation from criminal law to buy the drug after a plan for the government
to grow medical marijuana was put on hold. The United States upheld a federal
ban on medical marijuana in 2001.
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- "It's the first time it has ever been done in the
world. The Dutch are pretty compassionate and tolerant," said James
Burton, director of the Institute of Medical Marijuana, one of the two
companies licensed to grow the drug for medical use in the Netherlands.
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- "No one would say that a dying patient or someone
in a wheelchair should not take cannabis to alleviate pain," he said.
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