Following the legalization of medical marijuana in Ukraine earlier this year, a lawmaker said this week that the first registered cannabis medicines could become available as soon as next month.
“Everything is in place for patients to receive medical cannabis products today, except for the medical cannabis itself,” Olga Stefanishyna, a member of the Ukraine parliament’s Committee on Public Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance, said at a press conference in Kyiv, according to local reports. “Because, aside from the regulatory system, someone needs to register these medicines in Ukraine.”
“Currently, as far as I know, the first registration of medicinal product is already in process,” Stefanishyna said. “We are very optimistic that in January we will be able to prescribe real medical cannabis based medicines.”
The comments, reported by the Odessa Journal and the Ukrainian National News, come after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the medical cannabis legislation into law in February. The legal change officially took effect this past summer, but so far no products have become available as officials work to get infrastructure around the medicines up and running.
Officials in August moved to clarify the scope of the new policy.
“Cannabis, its resin, extracts and tinctures are excluded from the list of particularly dangerous substances,” the Ministry of Health said in an announcement at the time. “Previously, their circulation was prohibited—now it is allowed, but with certain restrictions.”
“In order to ensure the cultivation of medical cannabis in Ukraine, licensing conditions have been developed, which will soon be considered by the Cabinet of Ministers,” the government added. “Also, the entire chain of circulation of medical cannabis, from import or cultivation to dispensing to a patient in a pharmacy, will be subject to license control.”
The law legalized medical cannabis for patients with severe illnesses and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from the nation’s ongoing conflict with Russia, which launched an invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
While the text of the legislation as introduced explicitly listed only cancer and war-related PTSD as qualifying conditions, the chair of the health committee said in July that lawmakers were hearing daily from patients with other illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.
Lawmakers approved the medical cannabis legislation last December, but the opposition Batkivshchyna party used a procedural tactic to block it by forcing consideration of a resolution to repeal the measure. That resolution failed in January, clearing its path to enactment.
Opponents previously tried to derail the marijuana bill by filing hundreds of what critics called “spam” amendments, but that attempt similarly failed, with the measure ultimately passing with 248 votes.
The Agrarian Policy Ministry will hold regulatory responsibilities over cannabis cultivation and processing operations. The National Police and State Agency on Medicines will also hold oversight and enforcement authorities related to the distribution of the medicine.
“Ukrainian patients first get access to imported medicines. Where the first medicines will come from depends on foreign manufacturers who have the necessary quality documents and will pass the registration stage,” Stefanishyna said earlier this year. “Cultivation of medical cannabis in Ukraine will be available later.”
As for qualifying conditions, “We are working on expanding it, at least to the same list as, for example, in Germany, so that as many patients as possible who need the necessary drugs can get access to them,” she added.
Zelensky, for his part, voiced support for medical marijuana legalization in mid-2023, stating in an address to the parliament that “all the world’s best practices, all the most effective policies, all the solutions, no matter how difficult or unusual they may seem to us, must be applied in Ukraine so that Ukrainians, all our citizens, do not have to endure the pain, stress and trauma of war.”
“In particular, we must finally fairly legalize cannabis-based medicines for all those who need them, with appropriate scientific research and controlled Ukrainian production,” he said.
During his presidential campaign, Zelensky also voiced support for medical cannabis legalization, saying in 2019 that he feels it would be “normal” to allow people to access cannabis “droplets,” which is possibly a reference to marijuana tinctures.
The policy change puts Ukraine is stark contrast to its long-time aggressor Russia, which has taken a particularly strong stance against reforming cannabis policy at the international level through the United Nations. The country has condemned Canada for legalizing marijuana nationwide, for example.
As for the United States’s own role on the international stage, a recent report by two organizations critical of the global drug war found that U.S. taxpayers contributed almost $13 billion to fund worldwide counternarcotics activities over the past decade. That spending often came at the expense of efforts to end global poverty and instead contributed to international human rights violations and environmental harms, the groups said.
Earlier this month, meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the international community to move away from punitive, criminal drug policies, saying that the global war on drugs “has failed, completely and utterly.”
“Criminalisation and prohibition have failed to reduce drug use and failed to deter drug-related crime,” Commissioner Volker Türk said on Thursday at a conference in Warsaw that included leaders and experts from across Europe. “These policies are simply not working—and we are failing some of the most vulnerable groups in our societies.”
Following the legalization of medical marijuana in Ukraine earlier this year, a lawmaker said this week that the first registered cannabis medicines could become available as soon as next month. “Everything is in place for patients to receive medical cannabis products today, except for the medical cannabis itself,” Olga Stefanishyna, a member of the Ukraine Read More
