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October 24, 2021
In pharmacies throughout Italy, "there is a strong shortage of medical cannabis for the preparation of cannabis-based magisterial drugs: the supply is not sufficient and pharmacies have great difficulty with respect to the exponentially increasing demand for these drugs by sick. We are unable to meet the demands. "
Federfarma's national secretary, Roberto Tobia, explains this to Ansa.
"The deficiency is chronic.
In addition, although reimbursement by the NHS is foreseen, in various Regions the preparations are not reimbursed and the cost for patients can even reach over 500 euros per month ".
In Italy, the cultivation, processing and trade of cannabis for therapeutic purposes to meet the needs of patients could guarantee up to 10 thousand jobs, from fields to bottles. This is what Coldiretti estimates in commenting on the announcement of the Undersecretary of Health Andrea Costa on the fact that "in the coming weeks the tenders for the cultivation of medical cannabis for medical use by public and private companies will be ready" with the aim of achieve productive self-sufficiency. "Italy, the demand for cannabis-based therapeutic products is constantly growing but - underlines Coldiretti - it is satisfied above all by imports since at the moment the only production allowed is that in the Military Pharmaceutical Chemical Plant of Florence,the only one authorized for cultivation "." Only by using the spaces already available in abandoned greenhouses or disused due to the crisis in horticulture, the Italian countryside - underlines Coldiretti - can immediately make available one thousand hectares of protected cultivation land " .
These are indoor environments where, Coldiretti specifies, control procedures can be carried out more easily by the authorities in charge to avoid the risk of abuse.
An opportunity that must be carefully evaluated in order to get out of dependence on abroad and start a 100% Italian supply chain project that unites agriculture with the pharmaceutical industry.
"A first experiment that - concludes Coldiretti - could open enormous potential if one were to decide to extend the production in the open field in suitable land: in the 40s with 100 thousand hectares cultivated, Italy was the second world producer of cannabis" sativa ", which from a botanical point of view is similar to the" indica "variety used for therapeutic purposes.