European campaigners must concentrate efforts on unlocking medical cannabis for patients rather than worrying about recreational use.
That was the conclusion of two figures at the head of the push to open up patient access: Maltese MEP Alex Agius Saliba and Bedrocan founder Tjalling Erkelens.
The pair called for harmonisation of rules across the European Union and said helping patients must be a priority for the industry and reform-minded lawmakers.
In March, Saliba announced he had founded a cross-party alliance with the European Parliament to push for liberalisation.
Speaking at Prohibition Partners Live, he shed light on how the project is progressing: “This is a cross-party initiative bringing together different MEPs from different groups.
“The EU as a political institution, if we don’t have cross party agreement it will be very difficult to ultimately gain ground when it comes to pushing forward an agenda.
“I think the numbers are very encouraging, we have more than 40 MEPS from nearly all political groups in the EU, geographically there is a very good balance from different member states.
“We are nearing agreement on the general and specific objectives we will be tackling as an alliance, we are aiming to focus specifically…on medicinal cannabis rather than on issues of non-medicinal use, although I have my own strong views on that.
“We are focussing on stopping stigmatisation of patients who are basically making use of medicinal cannabis.”
Erkelens of Bedrocan, a medical cannabis company based in the Netherlands, said he supported the approach of prioritising patients above leisure, saying the medical versus recreational argument is ‘apples and pears’.
He said: “[Saliba] is totally right with the approach where you say although you have an opinion on the recreational market it should be separated and that is what I have always been saying.
“I’m not opposed to recreational use of cannabis, although there are always issues, but what can not happen to my mind is we have a situation where outlets for recreational are being used by patients to get access to a product they need.
“That separation is important. I would encourage the industry to go for that separation too…the mix up of medicinal and recreational in one company doesn’t work.”
Saliba said key issues that need reform in the European market include the cost to patients, agreed technical standardisations, harmonisation of national laws and fostering cross-continent research.
Commenting on the need for harmonisation across the block, Erkelens said: “Harmonisation of regulation is becoming a theme that everyone is starting to see now where the needs are.
“We have one Europe where everybody does the same thing and then we have this product that divides everybody.”
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