[420 Girl]

Germany's health ministry has announced plans to allow the use of marijuana as a medicine. In an August 16 press conference, Health Minister Philipp Roesler told reporters that only changes in ministry policy would be required and that no changes in German law would be needed.

Although the medicinal qualities of marijuana are increasingly non-controversial in Europe, German lawmakers two years ago rejected a move to legalize medical marijuana. Individual patients have had to go to court to win the right to be prescribed, a state of affairs that has resulted in only 40 patients in the entire country having medical marijuana prescriptions.

Because medical marijuana is accepted in other European countries, legalizing it in Germany should go "quickly by comparison," Roesler said.

It is time for Germany to join the club, said health care professionals welcoming the move. "Because it is disproportionately difficult to obtain cannabis as medicine, many patients with chronic pain are currently forced into illegality," said Eugen Brysch of the German Hospice Foundation. Medical marijuana could play "an important role" in the treatment of the critically ill, he added.

"It's time to bring cannabis out from the shadows," said Gerhard Mueller-Schwefe, president of the German Society for Pain Therapy.



News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: StoptheDrugWar.org
Copyright: 2008 StoptheDrugWar.org
Contact: drcnet@drcnet.org
Website: Germany to Okay Medical Marijuana | StoptheDrugWar.org


http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...marijuana.html