Legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Ukraine has been passed by a key legislative committee in Ukraine, putting it just one step away from reaching the desk of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The National Health, Medical Care and Health Insurance Committee yesterday passed the legislation with overwhelming support. The committee’s vote comes nearly three months after the country’s parliament voted 268 to 137 to pass the bill through its first reading.
The proposal will now need to receive just one more vote by the full parliament before it can be sent to the president. It’s expected the body will approve the bill in the coming days.
Prior to this summer, the measure stalled in the parliament for around two years, but it gained momentum earlier this year as Zelenksyy increased calls for medical marijuana legalization.
“In particular, we must finally honestly legalize cannabis-based medicine for everyone who needs it, [with] the relevant scientific research and controlled Ukrainian manufacturing”, Zelenskyy said in a recent address to parliament. “All the world’s best practices, all the most effective policies, all the solutions, no matter how difficult or unusual they may seem to us, must be applied in Ukraine so that Ukrainians, all our citizens, do not have to endure the pain, stress, and trauma of war”.
Minister of Healthcare Viktor Liashko said the bill would regulate “the circulation of cannabis plants for medical, industrial purposes, scientific and scientific-technical activities to create the conditions for expanding the access of patients to the necessary treatment of cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from war.”
According to polling released last year, 65% of those in Ukraine support legalizing medical cannabis.
