The political questionability of cannabis

Date: 05.10.2018

''If self-healing, as we understand it, is not permitted and if the health system does not provide adequate access and normal pricing of hemp or hemp preparations as medicines, then patients will continue to be criminalised and stigmatised rather than properly treated in a health institution.''

For a considerable length of time the benefits of cannabis have been debated throughout the geographical area, mainly regarding its therapeutic effects. We read stories of how cannabis has helped alleviate unpleasantness, allowed patients to undergo less suffering in their illness and some that have even been cured.  

The fear surrounding hemp stems from the field of narcotics; namely, in political and legal spheres it is considered that cannabis is a drug and therefore forbidden, although being medicinal. Hemp users therefore have three roles; the first being the role of a criminal (due to prohibition), the second being role of the socially underprivileged (due to risk factors) and the third the role of the patient (therapeutic factors). With such classification, hemp users run into ideological obstacles and in continuation call into question the current political policies, strategies and legislation regarding hemp.  

Cannabis is a drug, considered in medical fields as a medicinal product and permitted to be used in Slovenia according to a regulation that has yet to be implemented. The current installation of hemp products and certain parts of the plant (peak hemp) into a group of illicit drugs allows its use for medicinal purposes. However, the whole thing is not as innocent as it seems at first glance.

Medicines, as well as all the other health services, are items which are payable. The pharmaceutical industry is a free market and the best mechanism for satisfying the health needs of individuals as users of pharmaceutical products. Even if in Slovenia it is currently possible to obtain hemp peaks on prescription, it is a white prescription for which a large sum of money has to be handed over.  

Not only should the prices of medicines already on the market be more affordable and uniform for all purchasers requiring medication, the current situation proves exactly the opposite: under current regulations the key actors, due to their position of monopoly, demand extortionate prices willy nilly, thus inhumanely exploiting every man's wish for a healthy recovery.   

A sick person’s desire is to be cured or to feel better and health authorities, such as doctors and public health communication acts should give their help and support. However, the regulation shows that their policies are inclined towards other interests and that health officials taking care of the general public are not that bothered.

The paradox appears right there, where the issue of health or sickness arises. Here we are all equal. However, it looks as though a patient’s individual fear of pain or even death is being continually exploited, while the price of medication is shamefully dictated and increased. And this is precisely the reason for unbridled profits and for the excuses saying something to the effect that if prices were lower, there would be no research made and even those with money would die.

If self-healing, as we understand it, is not permitted and if the health system does not provide adequate access and normal pricing of hemp or hemp preparations as medicines, then patients will continue to be criminalised and stigmatised rather than properly treated in a health institution. To what aim?

I.CANNA.BLOG

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