Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Legalizing Med Pot Nationally

No, no, not here. The Dutch, of course. (Didn’t know about Canada, though.)

The Dutch government said on Wednesday it wants to promote the development of cannabis-based medicine and will extend the drug's availability in pharmacies by five years to allow more scientific research.

In 2003, the Netherlands became the world's first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug in pharmacies to treat chronic pain, nausea and loss of appetite in cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis patients.

"Medicinal cannabis must become a regular registered medicine," Health Minister Ab Klink said in a statement, adding he wanted to give the development of a cannabis-based medicine by a Dutch company a serious chance.
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The Dutch government regulates the growing of special strains of cannabis in laboratory-style conditions to supply pharmacies. A Dutch company started working on developing a cannabis-based drug last year, the health ministry said.


"The development path, that could take several years, can deliver scientific details and insight into the balance between the efficacy and safety of medicinal cannabis," it said.

In 2005, Canada became the first country in the world to approve a cannabis-based medicine produced by Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals Plc as a treatment for MS patients.
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Cannabis has a long history of medicinal use. It was used as a Chinese herbal remedy around 5,000 years ago, while Britain's Queen Victoria is said to have taken cannabis tincture for menstrual pains.


But it fell out of favor because of a lack of standardized preparations and the development of more potent synthetic drugs.

Let’s just call ‘em terrorists and arrest all the Dutch we can find.

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