The first medicines made from medical cannabis may appear in Ukraine in January
11 December 16:36
The first medical cannabis-based drug may appear on the Ukrainian market in January 2025. This was stated by Olga Stefanyshyna, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance, Komersant ukrainskyi reports citing Interfax-Ukraine.
“As far as I know, the first registration of the drug is already in progress. We expect it to happen in December. We hope that in January it will be possible to prescribe real medicines based on medical cannabis,”
– she said at a press conference in Kyiv.
Stefanyshyna also emphasized that Ukraine already has the necessary regulatory framework for the circulation of such drugs, but they are not yet available on the market.
“Currently, everything is in place for patients to receive medical cannabis products, except for medical cannabis itself. Because, in addition to the regulatory system, someone needs to register these drugs in Ukraine,”
– she added.
What is medical cannabis
The medical value of cannabis lies in the cannabinoids, the compounds found in the plant. Most of the known cannabinoids are still not well researched. The most well-known are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC or THC in Latin) and cannabidiol (CBD). These are the two cannabinoids most often mentioned when talking about medical cannabis.
Tetrahydrocannabinol is the “narcotic” component of cannabis. It is because of this component that hemp was classified as a dangerous drug in the XX century. Medical cannabis is not only hemp with a low content of the narcotic compound THC, but also those with a low percentage of tetrahydrocannabinol.
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Treatment with cannabis
The feasibility of therapeutic use of cannabis has been confirmed by scientists for the following conditions
- neurological diseases: multiple sclerosis, epilepsy (according to preliminary findings, cannabis can have a positive effect on the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Tourette’s syndrome);
- diseases of the digestive tract (according to convincing evidence, cannabis has a significant positive effect on alleviating side effects during chemotherapy in oncology (especially nausea and vomiting) and side effects associated with HIV/AIDS treatment;
- according to preliminary conclusions, a positive effect is also observed in relation to ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, as well as in inflammation and intestinal motility dysfunction;
- in addition, cannabis-based products are used to increase appetite in diseases that lead to weight loss and exhaustion);
- drug addiction and mental health problems (according to preliminary evidence, cannabis is effective as a substitute therapy for opioids, stimulants (including cocaine) and alcohol, as well as for overcoming anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders and sleep disorders);
- chronic pain of neuropathic origin;
- palliative care (mainly cannabis-based products are used to relieve a range of symptoms in cancer patients in need of palliative care, including pain relief, eating disorders, and sleep).
In addition, it has been scientifically proven that phytocannabinoids have a highly effective antimicrobial effect (on staphylococci and streptococci), and also demonstrate a noticeable positive effect in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, various diseases of the immune system, arthritis and rheumatism, asthma, various forms of sclerosis, herpes, diabetic neuropathy, anorexia, and many other ailments.
The use of hemp (Cannabis) in the world
The use of cannabis for medical purposes (or, depending on the specifics of regulation, the use of cannabis-based drugs) is allowed in more than fifty countries, including Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, etc.
