The Greek Parliament passed a bill with an extended majority allowing the production of cannabis for medicinal reasons. Apart from the government (SYRIZA and ANEL), the bill was also backed by opposition parties Democratic Alignment and the River, while major opposition party New Democracy (ND), the Communist party (KKE), Golden Dawn and the Union Centrists voted against it.

 ND’s point of contention was that while it did not dispute the usefulness of pharmaceutical cannabis, it objected to the fact that the government legislated without making provisions to ensure an unchecked cultivation on a mass scale and trafficking of cannabis.

During a heated debate in the plenum, an irate Health Minister Andreas Xanthos objected to assertions that Greece was being turned into a vast area of cannabis cultivation. He insisted that it becomes a first important step for patients to have access to formulations that have been proven and documented to have beneficial, relieving and comforting effects, and in some cases, therapeutic results. He underlined that the framework introduced by the bill is clearly defined and offers all the necessary safety precautions. </s> Greece’s parliament has approved a bill allowing the production of medicinal cannabis, with the government coalition and centrist parties voting in favor.

The main opposition New Democracy, the Communist Party, Golden Dawn and the Centrists’ Union voted against.

“We are discussing the licensing of a single, integrated unit that includes production, processing and production of finished medicinal products of hemp. That’s what it is about,” said Health Minister Andreas Xanthos.

The opposition parties that voted in favor of the bill said the framework introduced by the government is neither complete, nor clearly defined, however it is a first step in the right direction.

New Democracy said it does not question the value of medicinal cannabis but is against the way the government is passing laws, because it is not including safeguards to prevent uncontrolled cultivation, production and sale.

The Communist Party not only voted against the bill but called on the ministry to withdraw it, accusing the government of opening up the sector to “vultures” and “murderous multinationals”.

(Source: AMNA) </s> XYLOKASTRO, Greece (Reuters) - Konstantinos Syros turned to cannabis 26 years ago after a motorcycle accident left him with deformed arm and debilitating pain that conventional treatments could not assuage. For years he had to buy it illegally. Now, he plans to grow it himself.

Greece legalized cannabis for medical use last year, and in March this year it lifted a ban on growing and producing it, in the hope of drawing foreign investment into the sector.

The law permitting Greeks to grow cannabis has come as a relief to patients, who say that lifting the ban on using it was only half the battle, as long as it remained hard to get.

The number seeking medicinal cannabis has grown “by thousands,” said Syros, who heads the Organisation for Patients Supporting Medicinal Use of Cannabis and lives off a disability pension. “They call me desperately asking for the medicine and the medicine does not exist.”

Imports of medicinal cannabis products were given the green light last year, but complicated regulations made it difficult to arrange.

Syros said he has been arrested three times for growing cannabis in his home. Now, he has begun growing hemp in a field near his home in Xylokastro, outside Athens, as part of a collective which makes products including creams and oils. He is planning soon to produce medicinal cannabis himself.

Georgis Economopoulos, a neurologist and head of the Greek Association for Therapeutic Cannabis, said thousands of patients in Greece use cannabis for a range of serious conditions.

“It has thrilled patients and their families, who were tortured with having to go abroad to find cannabis,” he said of the law.

Jaqueline Poitras, a member of the Mothers for Cannabis Foundation whose 18-year-old daughter is epileptic, said she had to try 17 different medications with dangerous side effects before using cannabis oil in 2014 to manage seizures.

“If you open the pamphlets in some of these boxes, some of the side effects are things like coma, death,” she said. “This should have been the first drug of choice and not the last drug of choice.” </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Campaigners had held protests demanding medicinal cannabis be allowed

Thailand's parliament has voted to approve cannabis for medical use, with a key lawmaker calling it a "New Year's gift" to the Thai people.

Recreational use will remain illegal.

Marijuana was used in Thailand as a traditional medicine, until it was banned in the 1930s.

South East Asia has some of the world's toughest penalties for drug usage or possession, and Thailand is the first in the region to allow medicinal marijuana.

Thailand's junta-appointed parliament voted to amend the Narcotic Act of 1979 on Tuesday.

It happened after an extra parliamentary session was arranged to push bills through before the New Year's holidays, according to Reuters news agency.

The amendment will become law when it is published in the government gazette, The Bangkok Post reported.

"This is a New Year's gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people," said Somchai Sawangkarn, chairman of the drafting committee, during the televised session.

What will be allowed?

Consumers will be able to carry specified amounts necessary for medicinal purposes, if they have a prescription or recognised certificate, the Bangkok Post said.

Licences for production and sale of the product will be strictly controlled.

The paper said the law also applies to kratom, a South East Asian plant that acts as a stimulant.

Worldwide changes

Across the world, countries have been revisiting their marijuana laws.

Canada and Uruguay are among those to have legalised it, including for recreational use. However South East Asia is known for having very harsh punishments for drugs-related charges.

Earlier this year, a man in Malaysia was given a death sentence for selling cannabis oil.

Meanwhile, on the Indonesian island of Bali, a British man is facing up to 15 years in prison after being found with cannabis oil which he says he needed for medical reasons.

The 45-year-old Pip Holmes, from Cornwall, says he asked a friend to send it to him while he was living in Bali to help his arthritis.

Image copyright Getty Images

Medical cannabis - what the research says

Conclusive or substantial evidence that it helps:

as treatment for chronic pain in adults

as treatment for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting

for improving patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms

Moderate evidence that it helps:

improving sleep in individuals with specific conditions including fibromyalgia and obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome

Epilepsy

Recent studies have found that cannabidiol (CBD - an active ingredient in cannabis) reduced seizures in individuals with rare childhood epilepsy disorders - Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome

Sources: US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; New England Journal of Medicine; NHS </s> On Tuesday, the interim Thai parliament voted to allow the use of medical cannabis — as well as kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller — in the country. Despite the passing of this bill, one of the senators who worked on it confirms that the use of marijuana for recreational purposes still remains illegal.

As reported by CNN, the amendment to the current Narcotics Bill was passed after both the second and third readings on Christmas Day. It will become effective as soon as it has been published on the Royal Gazette. Once published, the production, import, export, possession, and use of marijuana and kratom for medical purposes become fully legal.

Purveyors, producers, and researchers dealing with the drugs will have to obtain licenses in order to do so legally, and users will have to obtain a medical prescription from a licensed doctor in order to be allowed to make use of them.

Lawmaker Somchai Sawangkarn had hailed the passing of this particular amendment, and said that to allow the use of medical marijuana in the country “could be considered as a New Year gift to Thais.” Public polls taken before the official vote showed a majority of Thai citizens were in favor of the motion.

Tuesday saw the National Legislative Assembly’s 166 members vote in favor of the change. None voted against the amendment, but there were 13 members of parliament who decided to abstain from voting.

The decision means that Thailand becomes the first country in Southeast Asia to allow the use of the drug in any form, in a region that is notoriously strict on drug use, and carries extremely harsh penalties for those found to be in violation of the law.

Other countries in the region are considering passing similar motions, including neighboring Malaysia. Earlier in December, New Zealand enacted a law liberalizing the use of medical cannabis, which was previously tightly restricted, according to Global News.

This year has seen the British government also approve the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and just last month it became available on the NHS for those with medical prescriptions. In 2017, medications derived from cannabis became legal in Germany, while medical marijuna itself is also legal in Australia, Ireland, and South Africa.

It is currently only legal for medicinal use in 30 states in the U.S., and the laws pertaining to its uses for medical purposes still vary greatly from state to state. </s> MOSCOW: New Zealand's parliament on Tuesday passed a bill authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes for chronically and terminally ill people, local media reported.

The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported that the bill, which gives terminally ill people legal defense for using cannabis products, passed its third reading with the support of all coalition partners except the National Party of New Zealand, which slammed the initiative to decriminalize cannabis.

According to the previous version of the bill, the medical use of marijuana could be authorized only for people with a year or less left to live.

During the bill's second reading on November 29, New Zealand Health Minister David Clark made several adjustments, expanding the legal defence to all people needing palliative relief, the newspaper noted.

According to the newspaper, cannabis-based drugs will be available by prescription, and the law will come into force as soon as it receives royal assent. </s> While the original draft of the Luxembourg medical pot law allowed only specialists to prescribe treatment, the final version permits accredited general practitioners to offer patients cannabis for chronic pain.

"I am pleased that the House has agreed with the bill to legalize access to cannabis for medical purposes," Mutsch noted, according to the Luxembourg Times.

"The medical use of cannabis is an important step in our efforts to reduce the pain and suffering of some patients, where usual treatments do not allow it," she observed.

The pain-relief substance will be imported from Canada in the form of oils and capsules, and will be available only by prescription from pharmacies located within a hospital, cited by the Luxembourg Times.

As the new law will certify only four hospitals within the 98.6-square-mile nation to provide the treatment, some legislators have criticised the legislation for being too restrictive, pointing out that rural residents without access to delivery resources may have difficulty receiving the medicine.

The new rules are also noted as potentially benefiting only those patients in the later stages of a terminal illness, and does not provide for the many other kinds of relief that medical cannabis has been clinically shown to offer.

Physician and current member of Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies Dr. Jean Colombera, noted that he was given "the impression it will only be used for people whose illnesses are too advanced. […] For me it should be used well before they reach this stage," cited by Delano magazine.

"Cannabis medicines can be used to treat a far larger number of illnesses […] for example if you've problems sleeping or depression or pain," he added.

Other EU countries that have shifted to using medical cannabis include Portugal, which approved the substance this month; Greece, which did so in March, and Germany, which in early 2017 legalized pain-relief treatments using cannabis. </s> Luxembourg will use cannabis coming from Canada

Photo: Michel Thiel

Cannabis for medical use has been made legal in Luxembourg.

The government unanimously passed the draft law to decriminalise the use of cannabis for patients suffering from diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or neurodegenerative diseases.

Under the draft law, all general practitioners who have undertaken specific training will be able to prescribe the drug.

This came as a result of an opinion submitted by the Council of State which overturned the initial draft of the text allowing only specialised medical professionals such as oncologists or neurologists.

Luxembourg will use cannabis coming from Canada and will only be available on prescription from a hospital pharmacy. Within the European Union only Austria and Germany have a cannabis agency.

The draft law states the law will be reviewed in two years to look at the number of patients who have benefited from the new measures and to consider whether the list of diseases should be expanded.

During parliamentary discussions a number of MPs suggested additional diseases, including HIV, should be included.

Health minister Lydia Mutsch described the approval of the law as an "important step in the context of our efforts to reduce the pain and suffering of certain patients where standard treatment does not allow it". </s> Thailand’s interim parliament voted to approve marijuana for medical use and research, one of the senators who worked on the bill told CNN on Tuesday. Recreational use of the drug remains illegal.

Lawmaker Somchai Sawangkarn said the passing of an amendment to allow medical marijuana in the country “could be considered as a New Year gift to Thais.”

“The amendment (on the Narcotics Bill) was passed the second and third readings today. And will become effective once it is published on the Royal Gazette,” he said.”

The National Legislative Assembly’s 166 members voted in favour of the change and there were no votes objecting to the motion. There were 13 members who abstained from the vote, CNN reported.

This makes Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to allow the use of medical marijuana. The region is notorious for its hardline approach to drugs and strict penalties for drug-related crimes.

The British government approved medical marijuana earlier this year, and it became available on November 1 from the National Health System to patients with a prescription.

Medications derived from cannabis became legal in Germany last year. Medical marijuana is also legal in Australia and Ireland.

In the US, medical marijuana is legal in 30 states, though the laws governing what’s permitted vary from state to state, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Hellenic Parliament passes a bill legalising the use of medical cannabis in Greece. New Democracy, Communist Party, Golden Dawn and the Union of Centrists voted against the government-sponsored bill.