The Spanish Congress is expected to consider the question of legalizing the medical use of marijuana after government officials from the Catalonia territory recently endorsed a plan to allow patients access to the drug.
All five political parties in the Catalan Parliament recently backed a proposal to permit patients to use the drug therapeutically. The proposal is anticipated to pass later this year, and then be submitted to the Spanish Congress for national consideration.
In addition, Catalan Health Department head Eduard Rius recently sent a letter to the Spanish health minister urging her to allow the importation of marijuana-based medicines, and to consider allowing legal access to the drug. Under prohibition, “only a privileged and well informed minority can take advantage of this therapeutic resource,” he said.
A spokesman for the health ministry responded that they have recently commissioned studies to better determine marijuana’s medical value, and will render a decision based upon their outcomes.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director, at (202) 483-8751.
