Currently, each EU member country is responsible for formulating and implementing its own cannabis laws as it sees fit. This has created a lot of contradictions and inconsistencies between the laws of the member states. This situation is bound to change in the event that the draft law that is being worked on by the health committee passes through all the stages and is endorsed by the EU council of ministers.
A public hearing is planned for October 1 to discuss the feasibility of that proposal.
One of the key aims of the draft law is to state how medical cannabis differs from any other uses to which marijuana can be put, especially the recreational use of the substance.
The bill will also ensure that all who need medical cannabis can access it. For example, medical marijuana should be covered by insurance providers in the EU in the same way that other forms of medicine are covered.
The draft also seeks to speed up research on the various medicinal uses of marijuana so that accurate information can be availed to the public. Such research could also uncover previously unknown medicinal uses of cannabis and help patients who would have otherwise lost all hope of seeing any improvement in their conditions.
EU member states would also be required to reform their existing cannabis laws in order to allow medical professionals/doctors and pharmacists to prescribe and avail medicinal marijuana without any legal roadblocks to the execution of their professional duties.
The law is intended to curb the black market of medical cannabis by controlling the points at which medical cannabis is sold. Such controls can have the added benefit of limiting underage access to the products.
The process of getting this draft law through all the stages until it is endorsed by the council of EU ministers is lengthy. It is estimated that it may take about eight months for the draft to reach the endorsement stage.
More sobering, however, is the fact that a resolution of the EU parliament doesn’t have any legal force in the member countries. At best, it can only be looked at as a recommendation which may or may not be implemented.
The brighter side of such proposals/resolutions is that they can serve as fodder for advocacy groups to pressure national governments to reform their prohibitionist laws in order to align the countries with the position taken at EU level. Proponents of cannabis decriminalization can therefore take pride in the fact that the EU is waking up to the medicinal roles that cannabis can play in the lives of citizens.
Entities like PreveCeutical Medical Inc. (CSE: PREV) (OTCQB: PRVCF) (FSE: 18H) and Earth Science Tech, Inc. (OTCQB: ETST) can only wish that the proposed harmonization of cannabis laws in the EU happens across the globe so that they don’t have the headache of dealing with different cannabis legal regimes in each jurisdiction where these companies operate.
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