Cannabis supplements: law enforcement officers expose multimillion-dollar drug scheme
21 March 08:49
The police have dismantled a criminal network that was engaged in the production and sale of dietary supplements with cannabis extract under the guise of legal business activities. This was reported by the National Police, according to
During the operation, police conducted nearly 90 searches in the capital, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipro, and Kyiv regions at the places of sale of drug products, residences, and vehicles of the suspects. Drug products worth UAH 20 million were seized.
How the drug scheme was organized
Law enforcement officers established that the drug business was organized by a 65-year-old Kyiv resident. On the territory of one of the controlled enterprises, the members of the criminal group set up a workshop for the production of dietary supplements and further ensured the sale of manufactured drug products throughout Ukraine.
The illegally manufactured supplements were sold through a previously established online store, tobacco outlets, as well as by sending mail through logistics companies throughout Ukraine. More than UAH 100 million of profit was received.
The police investigators served the organizer of the criminal activity a notice of suspicion under Part 3 of Art. 307 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Illegal production, manufacture, purchase, storage, transportation, shipment or sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues). He faces up to twelve years in prison with confiscation of property.
Medical cannabis was legalized in Ukraine last year
on August 16, 2024, the law on the legalization of medical cannabis came into force in Ukraine, allowing doctors to prescribe cannabis-based medicines.
The Ukrainian Medical Cannabis Association, citing information from the Ministry of Health, reports that more than 6,000,000 people in Ukraine need medical cannabis-based medicines.
In 2024, after lengthy discussions, the Law “On Regulation of the Turnover of Plants of the Cannabis Genus for Medical, Industrial, Scientific and Scientific-Technical Purposes” was adopted. And now Ukraine regulates the circulation of cannabis not only for medical purposes, but also for industrial and scientific activities, which greatly simplifies the procedure for registering industrial hemp crops.
Only legal entities that obtain the appropriate license and adhere to good cultivation practices will be able to grow medical cannabis in a closed ground (greenhouse) under round-the-clock video surveillance and with access for the National Police. Each plant will also have an individual code to track the movement of plants to the patient.
Cannabis medicines to appear in pharmacies in 2025
In early January of this year, the first medicines based on medical cannabis were registered in Ukraine – oral drops of a Spanish brand. Now we are only talking about importing such medicines.
Medical cannabis medicines will be sold exclusively in manufacturing pharmacies, i.e. those that produce medicines according to individual prescriptions and at the request of medical institutions. There are currently only about two hundred such pharmacies in Ukraine.
Pharmacies that will manufacture medicines must have three licenses: for retail trade, manufacturing of drugs, and trafficking of narcotic substances.
Such medicines will be sold in pharmacies on the basis of an electronic prescription from a doctor in the patient’s name.
It is important for Ukraine to launch its own production. In the future, this will reduce the cost of drugs and make them more affordable for patients.
