Belgium: medical marijuana to be sold as from this summer

Medical marijuana is to go on sale in Belgium as from early July, De Morgen reported on Friday.

A royal decree legalising the sale of cannabis for pain alleviation was signed by Health Minister Maggie De Block on Thursday.

The decree allows for licensed medicines with an active ingredient of cannabis to be sold on prescription. It will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in late June, with the law to come into effect ten days later.

Currently in Belgium, the only drug with cannabis as an active ingredient, is Sativex, a spray used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS).

However, Maggie De Block told Radio 1 on Friday that other drugs may soon follow. "There is still a lot of research in the pipeline for the use of cannabis to combat pain," she said, adding that evidence showed that medical cannabis was effective in combating pain amongst MS sufferers.

"There is a lot of research in the field of pain relief with cannabis. For MS, there are already good indications, but also for the treatment of severe rheumatoid and degenerative diseases and muscular diseases, research is in progress," De Block said.

According to the health minister, under the law, doctors will be free to dispense drugs as they see fit. She also said the cost of treatment had not been finalized, but would "probably be settled" by the end of the year. Endit