Cannativa delivers Open Letter from Patients to Deputies in the AR

Cannativa — Associação de Estudos sobre Canábis delivered on the 8th of March, in the Assembly of the Republic, to all the deputies present in the Health Committee, a copy of the Open Letter for Patient Access to Medicinal Cannabis in Portugal.

The Letter, which has already exceeded 350 signatures, can be signed by patients or patient representatives at www.cannativa.pt/carta.html.

Open letter
For Patient Access to Medicinal Cannabis in Portugal

The therapeutic potential of the Cannabis Sativa L. plant is currently undisputed, being duly documented and scientifically proven for various pathologies. With the legalization of cannabis for medicinal purposes in more than 30 countries in the world, of which 14 are in Europe, several Portuguese patients became aware of this alternative and are currently using cannabis with positive effects on the symptoms of their diseases.

However, access to medical cannabis in Portugal is marginalized, due to an ambiguous and insufficient legal framework, which makes it impossible for patients to use this therapy in a regulated and effective way, as in other European Community countries.

Many of these patients are debilitated and in a situation of extreme fragility and come in this Open Letter to publicly expose what they want:

• • Leaving the legal insecurity and marginalization in which they find themselves, being able to access cannabis safely and with quality assurance;
  • Access credible information, being able to talk to your doctor without suffering stigmatization or prejudice and having access to cannabis with due monitoring, for which urgent training of health professionals is necessary;
  • That cannabis derivatives are sold in pharmacies and that they are tested by a regulatory authority, which makes it possible to know for sure what is being consumed;
  • That not only Sativex is available in pharmacies, but as many genetic variants of the plant and flowers and cannabis extracts as possible upon prescription and, if possible, with reimbursement from the National Health System;
  • That, in the impossibility of finding in the pharmacy the strain of the plant with the most suitable cannabinoid and terpenoid profile for their pathologies, patients can have a medical prescription and a special authorization for the self-cultivation of the plant.

  In this sense, and in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of Article 64 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, which enshrines that “everyone has the right to health protection and the duty to defend and promote it”, the patients below -signed hereby appeal to the deputies of the Assembly of the Republic for an urgent, clear and effective review of the current legislation on cannabis for medicinal purposes in Portugal.