Parliament to consider medical marijuana amendment
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
16.07.2015 09:06
Speaker of Poland's lower house of parliament Małgorzata Kidawa-Błonska has said the issue of widening availability of medical marijuana could be taken up at the house's forthcoming sitting next week.
Photo: Glowimages
Kidawa Błonska, a member of senior coalition partner Civic Platform, noted that Health Minister Marian Zembała “agrees with me that this problem has to be dealt with.”
She likewise referred to studies that “appear to confirm that medical marijuana can help in the treatment of many diseases.”
The draft amendment to the law on counteracting drug addiction has not been prepared by Civic Platform, and the signatories take in seven members of the liberal Your Movement party, seven independents, three members of the United Right and one member of the Polish People's Party, led by United Right MP Patryk Jaki.
Kidawa-Błonska said that ultimately “the Ministry of Health may enter appropriate medications or preparations on the list of medicines and determine how and to whom they should be distributed.”
At present only one marijuana-based product is legally available in Poland, specifically for sufferers of multiple sclerosis.
A recent survey indicated that Poles are strongly in favour of permitting the use of marijuana for medical treatment, with some 68 percent backing the policy. (nh)