Welcome to the Best Center on Medical Cannabis
Cannabis is the Latin name for cannabis. This plant has been used for more than a thousand years for domestic and medical purposes, as well as a drug. Plants are male and female and contain more than 60 different pharmacologically active substances – cannabinoids. The main ones are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Their number varies markedly from plant to plant. In addition, cannabis contains other substances that can be used in medicine, for example, essential oils (terpenes) and flavonoids.
Cannabis
Use in medicine
In Germany, THC, the active substance of cannabis, can be prescribed for medical purposes since 1998. Doctors can prescribe to patients’ medications containing such forms of THC as Dronabinol and Nabilon if they expect a positive effect on the course of the disease or on severe symptoms. Among the areas of application: analgesic treatment, some chronic diseases, as well as severe forms of nausea and loss of appetite.
The main types of medical use THC
The text of the new law does not consciously list specific diseases or symptoms in which the use of cannabis is permissible. The matter is that the issue is still open: the scientific study of the medical use of cannabis is actively continuing.
Currently, cannabis is used in the following areas:
In anesthetizing and palliative treatment, with so-called neuropathic pain, spasticity with multiple sclerosis, lack of appetite, nausea, and vomiting
Current studies suggest a positive impact in many medical fields – neurology (spasticity, motor function disorders), dermatology, ophthalmology (glaucoma), psychiatry (depression, painful fears, attention deficit disorder) and other diseases (for example, arthrosis and arthritis, colitis, Crohn’s disease).
The use of cannabis is often recommended only if other types of treatment do not work.
Cannabis by prescription
Patient management
Finding a doctor:
First of all, it is important to find a doctor who is ready to use cannabis medications. All doctors in Germany, except for dentists and veterinarians, have the right to prescribe them; while using the so-called prescription for a narcotic drug, abbreviated BtM. The doctor decides whether the use of cannabis makes sense in a particular case.
Coverage of expenses
After the receipt of the first prescription, you should ask for coverage in the health insurance fund. The main indications are:
There is a serious illness
For this case, there is no universally accepted alternative to the drug-containing cannabis, which corresponds to medical standards.
- Probably a positive effect on the course of the disease or severe symptoms.
- The patient agrees with the anonymous transmission of the disease data to the Federal Institute of Medicines and Medical Products (BfArM).
To make a decision to pay for the medicine, the health insurance funds use their medical service (MDK). She assesses the situation and makes a recommendation. Refusal is possible only in exceptional cases and must be justified. Importantly: patients who are outpatient in palliative procedures and unable to wait weeks for a decision are entitled to receive a response from the health insurance fund within three days. Thus, the new law takes care of especially serious patients: palliative medicine is designed to facilitate the life of patients suffering from an incurable, shortening the life of diseases.
Doctor’s appointment: when you confirm payment by the health insurance fund, the doctor can prescribe the appropriate prescription.
The Agency regulates the cultivation of cannabis
According to the state plan, cannabis for medical use will continue to be grown in Germany under the supervision of a special agent at the Institute of Drugs and Medical Products (BfArM). Its goal is to provide seriously ill patients with local cannabis of medical quality by 2019. Until now, for use in medical purposes, the plant has been purchased in the Netherlands and Canada.
Would you like to personally consult on these topics?
Experts from UPD will be happy to answer your questions:
- By phone (free of charge from all networks)as part of an online consultation or
- Fax (Notification of Data Protection).
Important: please do not send us by mail the originals, only copies. Unfortunately, we cannot return the documents to you. For reasons of data protection, they are destroyed after processing your request.
The medical information presented here is of a general nature. She does not, in any case, replace personal consultation with a doctor, professional examination, and diagnosis. It cannot and should not be used for an independent attempt to diagnose itself for self-treatment.