GW Pharmaceuticals Founder Reveals Other Areas of Research.

The Netherlands; Patients Receive Cannabis From Pharmacies

Dutch patients with a doctor’s prescription will be able to obtain cannabis from chemists starting from 1 September. Pharmacies will offer two sorts of cannabis, with the cheapest batch priced at 40 EUR per five grams, and the other variant 50-55 EUR per five grams. But the pharmacy association KNMP said patients will have to pay for their cannabis themselves because the drug is not yet included in the ziekenfonds health insurance scheme as a claimable reimbursement. (Ziekenfonds; Dutch National Health Plan that automatically applies to every Dutch citizen.)

The chemist-supplied cannabis is more expensive than the cannabis sold in coffee shops, where users can buy a gram for prices ranging between 5 and 6 EUR. Two Dutch cultivators, The Stichting Institute of Medical Marijuana and the firm Bedrocan are supplying pharmacists with the cannabis, making them the first legal suppliers of the drug in Europe. The Office for Medicinal Cannabis of the Health Ministry inspects the cannabis for quality control and organizes its distribution.

Cannabis had been unofficially available in pharmacies for several years provided by the Dutch firm Maripharm. On 17 March 2003 a change of the narcotic law took effect that paved the way for a legal supply.

More in the presentation of Willem Scholten of the Office of Medicinal Cannabis at the IACM 2nd Conference on Cannabinoids in Medicine: www.Cologne2003.org

(Source: www.Expatica.com of 29 August 2003)

*Industrial-Hemp has no psychoactive properties following definition of the European Economic Community (EEC); THC content is less than 0.3%. In general, low THC-seed varieties without psychoactive properties are those that have a THC content of less than 1%. (See also No-THC Hemp-seed.) THC= Delta-9 TetraHydroCannabinol.