Here’s what they are saying
By Maciej Konarowski, President of the Polish Medical Cannabis Patients Association and founder of the Can advocare law firm, and Conor O’Brien, Analyst at Prohibition Partners
28 January 2022
Newly released data show that Poland is home to over 9,261 patients legally accessing medical cannabis, making it one of the largest such populations in Europe. Demand for medical cannabis from patients in Poland is growing fast, but the government is still failing to ensure adequate supply. New legislation that would bolster the national supply has been rejected by the Parliament.
New cannabis legislation in Poland
On 13 January 2022, the Polish Parliament held the first reading of three draft laws intended to overhaul the cannabis laws in Poland. Out of the three drafts under consideration, two were rejected, and the third one was accepted for further proceedings by the Health and Agriculture committees. Currently, legislative work is taking place with respect to six different drafts of amendments to the hemp law, two of which (including one citizen’s draft) relate to the legalisation of recreational use.
The first of the rejected drafts provided for the general admission of cannabis cultivation with high THC concentration for the needs of the pharmaceutical industry in Poland, allowed the reimbursement of cannabis-based medicines for certain indications, and aimed to regulate the legal issue of driving after the use (2-5 ng Δ9 THC/ml) and in an intoxicated state (>5 ng Δ9 THC/ml) of THC. It therefore remains illegal to cultivate medical cannabis commercially in Poland and patients must rely on imports from Europe and North America.
The second bill, also rejected, was a new law comprehensively regulating the cultivation of industrial hemp (with a low THC content), the cultivation of which is now legal in Poland, but regulated (like so-called ‘medical marijuana’) by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. The proposal assumed raising to 0.3% THC the limit, differentiating between fibrous (industrial) hemp and hemp with high THC content used for medical purposes.
The third draft, which has been sent for further proceedings, provides for enabling state research institutes supervised by the Minister of Agriculture to cultivate hemp with higher than 0.3% THC in Poland for the needs of the pharmaceutical industry.
Maciej Konarowski of Can advocare commented:
“The draft law is clearly underdeveloped and contains many loopholes, which means that even if the discussed regulations find political support and are enacted, their actual use will not occur during the current term of the parliament.”
Read full article. https://prohibitionpartners.com/2022/01/28/poland-legislative-reform-is-lacking-for-one-of-europes-largest-medical-cannabis-markets/?mc_cid=eaf9ad0dc2
