Poland
Last month Poland’s Ministry of Health enacted new legislation preventing medical cannabis patients from securing prescriptions online.
In August, Business of Cannabis reported that following a surge in medical cannabis prescriptions from 11,400 to 313,000 between 2020 and 2023, concerns were raised by the Ministry that cannabis could be increasingly used for non-medical purposes.
As such, new regulations were proposed that would limit online prescriptions to ongoing treatments of up to three months and restrict the ability to prescribe controlled substances, including medical cannabis, to general practitioners only during these online consultations.
The impact of these new restrictions is now starting to play out in the market. According to new data from PEX, in October, a month ahead of the new regulations, patients purchased a record 90,388 packages of cannabis-based products from pharmacies.
This marked a 15% month-on-month increase, with total expenditures reaching PLN 42.67 million, nearly PLN 5.7 million more than in all of 2022.
Pharmacists reported a surge in sales ahead of the November rule changes. “Patients bought everything they could. They didn’t care about prices or manufacturers,” one told the organisation.
In separate findings from Mikołaj Rusin, based on a survey of 576 medical cannabis users, it was clear that the changes were unpopular with the public.
Following the new restrictions, 34% of respondents said they were unsure whether they will continue legal therapy, while 54.9% plan to continue, and 11.1% intend to stop using medical cannabis altogether.
Furthermore, 81.3% of respondents said they obtained their first prescription via online consultations in private cannabis clinics. Only 8.2% used in-person visits at private clinics, while 6.4% were seen in-person by doctors associated with the National Health Fund.
Just 15.5% of patients said they received about cannabis therapy through their doctor. Conversely, 56.9% of patients learned about cannabis therapy through the internet.
Ireland
Ireland’s election has now come to a close, seeing the incumbent coalition almost certain to form a new government in the new year.
With the now largest party, the Fianna Fáil, committing to the decriminalisation of cannabis for personal use as an election pledge, there is hope that the new administration will soon honour the recommendations of the recent Citizens Assembly on Drugs Use.
However, given that their necessary counterparts, the Fine Gael, alongside an as-yet-undecided two-seat coalition member, do not share their enthusiasm for cannabis reform, the future of cannabis in Ireland remains uncertain for now.
To form a government, a coalition with a combined total of 88 seats must be agreed to secure a majority in the Dail.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which have been in coalition since 2020, received 48 and 38 seats respectively, just two short of a majority, with the Sinn Féin suffering a significant decline but still coming second with 39 seats.
As such, the two ‘brother parties’, one of which has been in power in Ireland for the last 100 years, will likely continue their coalition if they can find a partner to join and fill the remaining two seats.
Public opinion on cannabis has shifted dramatically in recent years, thanks largely to the recent Citizens Assembly, which has historically held significant weight in terms of influencing Irish policy, and the subsequent interim report from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use.
As reported by last month, both of these have advocated strongly for cannabis decriminalisation, encouraging the Fianna Fáil to include it as an election pledge just weeks ahead of the election.
Fianna Fáil’s manifesto commits to decriminalising personal drug possession and exploring cannabis regulation, but little detail was given on how this might look in practice.
Furthermore, their manifesto calls for anyone caught in possession of drugs to receive mandatory treatment or education, an increasingly controversial policy, while making no mention of medical cannabis.
Conversely, Fine Gael is the only party in Ireland not to support decriminalisation of cannabis, according to reporting from The Cannabis Review, and remains a staunch opponent of drug reform.
In their manifesto, the party pledged to combat drug use through increased enforcement and investment in addiction services.
As such, the likely coalition is at loggerheads in terms of cannabis reform, and these differing opinions have already seen Fianna Fail change their stance on reformation policy in the previous administration.
Malta
Malta’s leading cannabis advocacy group, ReLeaf Malta, has raised alarms amid suggestions that a ‘draconian’ organisation is set to be put in control of the country’s harm reduction policies, potentially having a major impact on the country’s cannabis industry.
Almost exactly three years after the official legalisation of adult-use cannabis on the island, ReLeaf has warned that it believes Agenzija Sedqa S.A.F.E. is set to be put in an influential position under the Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC), though Business of Cannabis could not independently verify these claims.
Sedqa is a Maltese agency focused on preventing addiction through education, outreach, and tailored interventions, and its Prevention Services team, composed of professionals from the Faculty of Social Wellbeing, delivers programs that address substance use, gambling, and other addictive behaviours.
However, given the group’s historic stance on cannabis use, ReLeaf says it is concerned their intervention could undermine the country’s cannabis liberalisation efforts and impact the growing number of cannabis harm reduction associations (CHRAs), who have also raised concerns.
In a social media post, ReLeaf’s President Andrew Bonello said: “This is of grave concern, especially due to Sedqa’s draconian approach and lack of evidence-based and human rights practices in their educational approach.
“ReLeaf Malta expresses its full opposition to a reversal of the #cannabis reform and questions why and who is behind this move? What happened to the harm reduction department within the ARUC?”