Health minister wants to allow sale of medicinal cannabis at chemist

The federal minister of health, Maggie De Block, is working on a decree that would enable the sale of medicinal cannabis in chemists across the country. Currently, the only cannabinoid medicine available in Belgium is Sativex, which is only prescribed to patients with muscle spasticity due to multiple sclerosis.

The use of cannabis to relieve nausea associated with chemotherapy and to treat pain and muscle spasticity is only allowed in Belgium as part of scientific studies. The new decree would open it up to prescription by doctors.

Patients with, for example, cancer, neuropathic pain or paraplegia who want to use medicinal cannabis are at present not included in the Sativex target group. “The scientific value was not sufficiently demonstrated during clinical trials,” said De Block during the Chamber commission for public health.