The Congress has taken this Tuesday a decisive step to promote for the first time in Spain the medicinal use of cannabis to treat the pain and symptoms of many patients.

A majority of groups have approved a report in which the Government is urged to regulate it and where it sets the guidelines for how it should work and which patients can benefit from this type of treatment.

This consensus reached in the subcommittee created to study this matter must be ratified on June 28 in the Health Commission.

It will be then when the conclusions and recommendations of the report acquire an official character and can be transferred to the Government.

From there and without the need to promote new laws, it will be the Ministry of Health that sets the times for its application, once the commitment of the PSOE and United We Can is to regulate in the agreed terms.

The report establishes which patients could be treated with cannabis-derived products.

It would be for cases of "multiple sclerosis, some forms of epilepsy, nausea and vomiting derived from chemotherapy, endometriosis, cancer pain and chronic non-cancer pain (including neuropathic pain), and may be extended to other therapeutic indications when studies provide evidence consistent."

The inclusion of the medicinal use of cannabis to address the effects of chemotherapy, cancer pain and endometriosis is one of the main novelties with respect to the basic text promoted by the PSOE and is a consequence of the search for consensus with other parliamentary groups.

The other great novelty is that the dispensing of treatments will not be exclusive to hospital pharmacies, but the door is opened so that they can also be available in community pharmacies "that may meet the requirements."

Access to treatment with cannabis-derived products will be under strict control.

Its prescription can only be made "exclusively" by health professionals "in a context free of potential conflicts of interest, such as that offered by health services."

Unlike the initial proposal, it is no longer required that they be doctors from the National Health System.

Therefore, the door is open for private health doctors.

In any case, there is a recommendation that the prescription be carried out "preferably" by doctors who are "specialists" and have skills in the areas involved.

For them, in addition, training in the therapeutic use of cannabis is proposed.

Treatments with standardized cannabis extracts or preparations can be in the form of oils, inhaled or pharmacological and must have a "defined and controllable" duration.

Depending on the results, says the report, the specialists can bet on maintaining the treatment if they see it convenient.

The master formulas that would be used must be endorsed and supervised by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS).

It will be coordinated with the autonomous communities for inspection and control.

This report has had the vote in favor of PSOE, United We Can, Citizens, PNV and PDeCAT, while PP and Vox have voted against.

EH Bildu and ERC has abstained.

Although the focus of the congressional subcommittee has been on medicinal use, the aspiration of some parties was to also promote the recreational use of cannabis.

A total legalization of its consumption.

That door remains closed despite the fact that attempts have been made to start a commitment to create another subcommittee to study this possibility.

In fact, the approved report warns that "it must be avoided" that the availability of cannabis for therapeutic uses can lead to greater availability and consumption outside the health context.

Thus, it is emphasized that it is "absolutely necessary" to prevent the population from "confusing" the approval of medicinal use as "a generic invocation of the general use" of cannabis for recreational purposes.

The medicinal use of cannabis is a step that other surrounding countries such as Germany, Portugal or Italy have already taken, in addition to being experimentally tested in France, and has broad support from the Spanish, since when the CIS asked the support figure was at 89%.

Socialist sources explained last week to this newspaper that Spain was taking "an important step" that has nothing to do with an "ideological issue" but rather "is designed to give a better quality of life to patients for whom the current medications are not they're giving it."

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