Hemp in medicine: Before the start of the new era (summer 2022)

Cannabis is still defined as prohibited in NarcA. Medical applications are very limited and only possible with exceptional permission. Now it will soon be easier to prescribe hemp medically, because medical hemp is newly classified in the controlled narcotics.

The text of the amendment to the law has been defined for some time, but now it is a question of the ordinances, i.e. the implementing provisions. A consultation process ran until November 2021. According to the FOPH, the report will be published “in the second half of June”, after the publication of this Legalize it! We will publish the link to it on our medical hemp page.

Subsequently, the definitive text of the ordinances is fixed and thus the important detailed provisions are also clarified. The Federal Council then determines the date of entry into force (law and ordinances). This could be the case - again according to the FOPH - “from summer”.

Medical hemp will be taken out of the total prohibition category and this will allow doctors to prescribe hemp without having to apply for an exemption. But medical hemp will still be a controlled narcotic. There will be rules and a kind of “good practice” for it. But these will have to be developed first: In a seven-year phase, all prescriptions will be reported to the FOPH, which will then create a database. The cantons and medical associations will also have a say in this.

I recommend all sick people who want to be treated with hemp to contact the medical societies that “work” on their disease and to see if a working group for the treatment with cannabis has been formed there. The costs are not necessarily covered by the health insurance companies, which is certainly an inhibiting factor. However, it seems central to me that many sick people get involved in this process, so that something new can really be tackled.