Patients with chronic pain who are deemed suitable for treatment can now, seek and find medicinal cannabis in Greece.
A special code was activated in the electronic prescribing of HICC on 15 February.
Anna Pagga, a patient with psoriatic arthritis, was suffering from the symptoms of the disease, but also from the side effects of the treatments she had been undergoing since 2017, before she even sought medicinal cannabis abroad.
She is now the first patient in Greece to be prescribed the prescription formulation.
“After so many years of waiting, we have the happiness, freedom for all patients to be able to legally receive our medicine from the pharmacy,” she says.
Experts point out that cannabinoids are not among the first-line treatments and are not given at the patient’s request, but only if the doctor decides, who will also decide on the dosage.
“There are side effects, there are contraindications, interactions with other drugs, certainly cannabis is no more dangerous than drugs we use but it has its own part in pharmacology and deserves our respect exactly for being another drug,” said the anaesthesiologist and President of the Medical Society for Cannabinoids.
The prescription, is indicated in cases of persistent – chronic pain and when patients do not respond to conventional treatments or experience side effects. Among others, it is used in epilepsy, autism, dementia and glaucoma.
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“To get to this point it took the cooperation of two different governments, the “Tsipras” government and the “Mitsotakis” government.
We have production and availability we now have the first factory in Corinth..and the first production of a finished product now is the flower will be followed by oils creams,” said Health Minister Adonis Georgiades.
Following the activation of electronic prescription of medicinal cannabis in Greece, 25 patients have been selected for its administration.
