It is believed that marijuana (more precisely, tetrahydrocannabinol, a substance found in cannabis) can have a mild analgesic effect, as well as relieve nausea and increase appetite. For medicinal purposes, marijuana in the Netherlands is produced by the company "Maripharm". Here everything is as for adults - the dose is calculated, weighed, packed in vacuum packaging and supplied with a label. It looks like a real medicine and costs about 9 euros per gram. If compared with the cost of most modern drugs intended for chemotherapy of cancer patients, the price turns out to be not just reasonable, but perhaps already almost bargain.
The patient can smoke the medicine or make an infusion from it, but the press secretary of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Bas Kuijk, said that a smokeless inhaler based on cannabis may appear in the future. It should be noted that this is not the first attempt to make a drug from marijuana that does not need to be smoked: in the 80s of the last century, tablets called "Marinol" were made from tetrahydrocannabinol. True, they did not become widely used then.
The law on legalization of "medicinal" marijuana was adopted by Dutch parliamentarians back in October 2001. However, the authorities postponed the start of this program for about a year and a half. Nevertheless, even such a period was not enough to work out all the details of the implementation of this law. For example, the authorities are only going to begin issuing official licenses for the right to grow cannabis. Meanwhile, pharmacies that have received the right to sell marijuana are forced to obtain this "medicinal" plant by various semi-legal means.
Interestingly, the new law not only improves the image of marijuana (now in Holland it is not just a legal drug, but a medicinal product), but also allows patients to save on its purchase. Dutch doctors, taking advantage of the liberal attitude of local authorities towards soft drugs, had previously recommended marijuana to cancer patients. But until mid-March, such advice from the attending physician balanced on the edge of the law. Patients had to either buy a not entirely legal "Maripharm" or get their "grass" in coffee shops - quite legal establishments that, nevertheless, are not part of the medical care system. A gram of marijuana in a coffee shop costs from 4 to 16 euros - this is not a lot of money, but it still has to be found somewhere. And now that marijuana is recognized as a medicine, its consumption also falls into the sphere of health insurance. In other words, if a doctor has prescribed you cannabis, you can demand compensation from your insurance company. Naturally, under the item "expenses for the purchase of medicines". True, not every medical insurance includes this condition.
In this whole semi-fantastic story, there is one point that simply must be mentioned for the sake of completeness. The fact is that the medicinal properties of cannabis have not yet been proven by anyone. There are only a large number of various medical hypotheses. However, for example, as an analgesic, marijuana loses to many existing drugs: the analgesic effect of tetrahydrocannabinol is not very great. There is an assumption that marijuana helps in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, but so far these data have not been finally confirmed. And the use of a drug (even a soft one) for medical purposes places a very great responsibility on the doctor. After all, it is still unknown which will outweigh: the therapeutic effect or the harm of marijuana.
However, so far in the Netherlands they are going to prescribe cannabis primarily to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. And here it is often not so much about cure as about reducing the suffering of the patient. Perhaps, in such cases, marijuana simply will not have time to noticeably harm a person.