The Hague, the Netherlands: Pending changes in Dutch law will allow federal health officials to license medicinal marijuana cultivators, and permit pharmacies to provide prescription-grade cannabis for medical use. The new regulations, which were first announced last April, are expected to be enacted by March 17, 2003, according to a spokesman from the Dutch Ministry of Health.
Licensing will be overseen by the Netherlands’ Office of Medicinal Cannabis (BMC) of the Health Ministry, which was established in 2000 to study and regulate the use of medical marijuana. All of the marijuana grown by state-licensed cultivators will be sold to the Office and eventually provided to Dutch pharmacies. Patients who possess a doctor’s prescription to use medicinal cannabis will be able to obtain marijuana at the pharmacies, just as they would any other prescription drug.
Once implemented, the Netherlands will be the first nation in the world to regulate and distribute medical cannabis in pharmacies. Similar regulations enacted in Canada 2001 allow for the state to distribute medical marijuana to qualified patients, but to date Health Canada has not allowed any of its harvested cannabis to be available to the public.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751.