Ukraine lawmakers have officially passed a bill to legalize medical marijuana, sending it to a supportive President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Today Ukraine’s unicameral legislature known as the Verkhovna Rada, passed the legislation with 248 of the body’s 450 members voting in favor.
Under the legislation, which President Zelenskyy is expected to sign into law quickly, those with a qualifying condition who receive a recommendation from a physician would be authorized to possess and use medical marijuana. Although the law at the time of passage only applies to severe illness like cancer as well as war-borne post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), proponents of the measure have said that the country can expand the list of qualifying conditions once it’s passed.
The new law will move marijuana from the most prohibitive Schedule I list of drugs to Schedule II.
“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 an address to parliament earlier this year. “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.
