SPAIN: Subcommittee of Congress will meet for the first time to discuss medical cannabis.

The medical cannabis subcommittee of the Spanish Congress will meet for the first time on February 16. The subcommittee will study the regulation of medicinal cannabis and should provide Congress with its conclusions before summer.

One subcommittee for one goal: Regulating medicinal cannabis in Spain.

Last October, Spanish Congress constituted the subcommittee as part of the Health and Consumption Commission to address a possible regulation of medical cannabis. For the first time, the subcommittee will meet next Wednesday, on February 16, to determine a framework to regulate medicinal cannabis in the country. Following the PNV proposal to create a specific subcommission to plan the legalization of medical cannabis, the Lower House has finally opened up the debate.  

As reported this Thursday by the Spanish Medicinal Cannabis Observatory (OECM), the subcommittee constitutes “the first stone on the path to legalization, a process that started last June.” The subcommittee should prepare a report and send it to the Government in the following months. 

The debate should end before June 30, although the OECM chose to contain optimism and be cautious about communicating specific dates. 

“We believe that it is urgent that in this legislature we can have a medicinal regulation program based on the evidence that already exists,” insisted the vice president of the OECM, Manuel Guzmán, during an informative breakfast with the media this Thursday. We won’t argue; scientific evidence defending the benefits of the legalization of medicinal cannabis is abundant. The OECM considers the debate “absurd in these times” since more than forty countries worldwide have already regulated medicinal cannabis.

300 000 patients could benefit from the legalization of medicinal cannabis in Spain.

According to estimates, 300,000 patients would need and benefit from the legalization of medicinal cannabis due to severe pathologies. 

“We are talking about patients with serious and very debilitating ailments that deserve humane treatment, patients with cancer, neurological diseases, pain, fibromyalgia, or chronic insomnia,” added Manuel Guzmán.

The OECM advised the subcommittee to focus on who will be provided with access to medicinal cannabis and how the Government will supply the products to them rather than debating the benefits of the legalization. 

Spain could follow the path of Canada and Israel who have chosen mixed models in which the Government works with private companies while ensuring social coverage for patients. This model would allow patients to access medical cannabis for free and therefore make sure that cannabis remains accessible to all. 

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