The Ministry of Health plans to move cannabis from its list of illegal drugs by the end of this year or the beginning of 2017. This would allow the use of the drug for medicinal purposes to treat specific ailments. Because Slovenia has a significant knowledge gap on this area, the medical chamber, the Institute of Oncology, and the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) have jointly organized a workshop about the use of cannabinoids in palliative care.
According to NIJZ's Milan Krek, doctors could already admit patients into palliative care following today's workshop but would then need to monitor them and observe the drug's effects. Several such workshops are being planned: Next spring, a workshop will focus on the use of cannabinoids in neurology, while another one in the fall will deal with cannabinoids in pain management. Krek said that NIJZ wished to convince the Ministry of Health to make cannabinoids accessible with insurance-covered prescriptions. (It is currently possible to obtain non-covered prescriptions and then go abroad – to the Netherlands, for instance -- to buy various cannabis-based products there.)
However, several questions need to be answered beforehand. Among them is the position of manufacturers; will cannabis be imported, in which fields will the drugs will be used, and the quantities that will be made available.
Big pharma not enthusiastic about medicinal marijuana
Meanwhile, Lumir Hanoš, a Czech expert who has spent the past 27 years studying the effects of cannabis, warns that all the hoopla surrounding medicinal marijuana is contrived since the plant has been used in medicine for a long time. He is convinced that big pharmaceutical companies want to demonize cannabis because they would lose out if it were legalized. Cannabis, after all, is inexpensive, easily accessible, and effective.
Because of a lack of studies, claims such as the one that cannabis can cure cancer are irrelevant for the medical community; patients were not treated in conditions controlled for variables. Further studies are therefore needed.
"We need to realize that cannabis cannot heal everyone, it can't be used to treat all diseases, and it's not useful in all stages of a disease. Also, there are no such things as industrial, medicinal, or recreational cannabis – but simply cannabis. The differences are only in the proportion and the amounts of ingredients," Hanoš stresses.
Studies will get underway in Slovenia
Pharmacologist Gorazd Drevenšek has announced the start of comprehensive clinical studies in Slovenia. The University of Primorska, along with the neurological clinics in Ljubljana and Trieste, have jointly prepared a project for the study of the effects of cannabinoids. Until now, cannabis-based products could not be prescribed in Slovenia except in the case of inpatient treatment. The studies are set to start next year, if everything goes according to plan. However, there is still not enough clinical data for cannabis to be prescribed in Europe, and Drevenšek also stressed the need for more studies.
Andrej, Čebokli (MMC), translated by J. B.
