Medicinal cannabis users left high and dry by Dutch tolerance policy
Guidelines from the Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG) recommended prescribing cannabis for pain relief in the palliative phase only
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Despite the relaxed attitude to cannabis in the Netherlands, acquiring the alternative medicine is often a battle. Around half a million people in the Netherlands use cannabis medicinally – the vast majority without a prescription – yet Dutch law-makers and prevailing attitudes have been slow to catch up. Under the hazy tolerance law, marijuana – including CBD – is still officially illegal and patients who self-medicate do so at their own risk despite its widely-demonstrated positive effect on certain conditions. Patients who do get prescriptions must bear the cost of their medication. According to The Dutch Care Institute, there is insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis for it to be included in basic health insurance.
