07/15/2020 - 20:38
- Clarín.com
- Society
In a virtual meeting held this Wednesday, the Nation's Ministry of Health presented a draft project that proposes a new regulation for the law that allows the medicinal use of marijuana , which was passed three years ago. The novelty of the document, which they have been working on since February, is that it accepted the personal cultivation of cannabis for therapeutic purposes . In addition, it opens the possibility that the oil is also available in pharmacies in the country .
As confirmed by Clarín from the Ministry of Health, the presentation was given by Minister Ginés González García and was given within the framework of the first advisory council carried out by this management in relation to the law.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary for Access to Health, Carla Vizzotti , and the Undersecretary for Medicines and Strategic Information, Sonia Tarragona , who was appointed as President of the Advisory Council. Referents from NGOs dedicated to the subject, representatives from Conicet, INTA, ANMAT and ANLAP, among others, also joined in.
The proposal, which was agreed by the parties, aims to "guarantee access based on the creation of a registry of medicinal specialties, self-cultivation, the expansion of medical specialties for prescription and a registry of patients," according to Health. Furthermore, "it establishes the promotion and support for clinical research for the generation of evidence for the therapeutic indication in other pathologies."
Another important detail is that it includes free medical cannabis for those who have "exclusive public coverage".
Among the most relevant points, a register of growers would be created and the State, through different universities in the country, would be in charge of controlling the quality of the product.
The new regulation being studied for the therapeutic use of marijuana foresees that the UBA carry out a quality control of the oils made by growers. (Mauricio Nievas)
For those who need to purchase the oil directly, the idea is that some pharmacies in the country can include it as a medicinal specialty and dispense it . In these cases, therapeutic cannabis should be prescribed by a doctor.
Vizzotti maintained that the proposal of the new regulation "was a pending debt that the State had, which had to respond to society in relation to a law that has its limitations"
The regulation that urges the State to investigate the medicinal use of cannabis was passed in 2017. At that time, it was restricted to only one condition: refractory epilepsy . However, in practice, the derivatives of the plant, whether oils or creams, are used by patients with other pathologies such as cancer, rheumatism, fibromyalgia and chronic pain.
Until now, importation of cannabis for medicinal use was allowed only , which is expensive and not always easily accessible.
Sources who participated in the meeting via Zoom assured that although some observations were made , there was general agreement regarding the advantages of the new form of law enforcement.
In early March, in an interview with Clarín , Minister Ginés González García had been reluctant to legalize marijuana for recreational use. However, he had spoken in favor of advancing in medicinal matters . "You have to broaden your therapeutic issue by reforming the law. You have to be able to access it easily and not with an illegal market like the one that exists now," he said at the time.
In March 2017, Congress passed the law on the investigation of the medicinal use of cannabis and its production, and in September of that same year it was regulated. It was then that her study was limited to the treatment of refractory epilepsy.
Almost 20 months passed until, at the end of 2018, the National Program for the Study and Research of the Medicinal use of the Cannabis Plant and its Derivatives and Non-Conventional Treatments, created from the law, authorized the Garrahan Hospital to carry out the first clinical trial by the State.
49 boys between 7 months and 17 years old participated: all suffered, among other neurological pathologies, refractory epilepsy, that is, for which none of the treatments tried so far had had an effect.
In December last year, Clarín released the preliminary results of that investigation. The treatment was effective in 80% of the cases: of the 49 patients who participated, 39 had positive results . That is, they saw their seizure crisis reduced.
DD