Cologne, Germany: Prescription cannabis regulated by Dutch pharmacies costs patients less to purchase than marijuana sold through licensed coffee shops, according to a report published this week by the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM).
The report cited a March 2004 Health Ministry survey that found approximately 70 percent of Dutch health insurance companies reimburse the costs of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis. As a result, “though the selling price of cannabis [sold in pharmacies] is higher [than the cannabis sold in coffee shops,] patents usually pay less,” the IACM reported.
Pharmaceutical-grade cannabis has been available to Dutch patients since September 2003, when the Netherlands became the first nation in the world to establish a federally sanctioned, regulated market for medicinal marijuana.
Since that time, government officials in Belgium, Spain, and Canada have expressed interest in establishing similar pilot programs to make cannabis legally available in pharmacies.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of the NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-5500.