German doctors have fought hard for years to get marijuana legalized as a medicine to help their terminally ill patients, suffering from multiple sclerosis, cancer or HIV to obtain their medicine legally.
After a lot of good news about the U.S. loosening the ties on medicinal marijuana, Germany now slowly recedes from its' conservative attitude towards the medicinal use of marijuana.
For the first time in German history, the 'Bundesopiumstelle' (FDA equivalent) has now granted 7 patients permission to get marijuana (imported from the Netherlands) in their local pharmacy.
"We are possibly able to help some patients with Cannabis", Winfried Kleinert, the head of the Bundesopiumstelle, said. "There is a big number of case series that indicate a positive effect."
Franjo Grotenhermen, the chairman of "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Cannabis als Medizin" (Association Medicinal Cannabis) confirmes that. For years he has been committed to help patients who need cannabis as a medicine to get out of illegality and he often has received reports of the beneficial effect of cannabis. "Those people are severely ill and don't respond to conventional treatments."
Grotenhermen and Kleinert see opportunities for application especially for people with chronic pains, multiple sclerosis, tourette syndrom, cancer and HIV.
One of the first patients to get marijuana legally in his pharmacy is Duisburgs Lars Scheimann. The 38-year old suffers from tourettes'. "Without cannabis I'm controlled by my tics; I ram my head against the wall or chew glass", he says. "A lot of people thought I was insane." Psychotropic drugs didn't improve his situation and had serious side effects. 15 years ago he met someone who was smoking a joint and out of curiosity he asked for a puff. Later on he realized that his tics became less intense.
Since then he can live without any sign of tourette syndrom, but "If I didn't smoke for 10 hours my situation would deteriorate again" Scheimann explains. Due to his illness he doens't get high at all, he says. "Cannabis doesn't work the same way with me as it does with healthy people."
15 years he feared prosecution because he had to get his remedy on the black market on the streets.
According to Kleinerts' evaluation cannabis is acceptable in exceptional cases only: "This won't become common treatment, it will only be granted for those who do not respond to other medications." Grotenhermen estimates that this is the case with more than 50.000 people all over Germany. "You can see that there is a change of thinking going on in health policy. Politicians who saw cannabis solely as a drug are now recognizing the other side of the coin."
Being a physician, Grotenhermen considers prosecution of patients in need of cannabis one of the most awful consequences of the strict German law on marijuana. He cites cases in which patients alleviate their pains with marijuana tea or cigarettes, while others use it to regain their appetite most cancer patients lose during therapies.
"While kids can buy the drug easily, the sick people are facing a lot of obstacles, because they are afraid of the drug scene or bound to a wheelchair."
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen