Spanish pharmacy representatives are calling for community pharmacies to play a larger role in preparing and dispensing medical marijuana treatments, citing travel barriers for patients who live far from hospitals.
The proposals emerged from a Farmaforum 2026 discussion detailed this month by the Official College of Pharmacists of Madrid. Participants included Antonio Blanes of the General Council of Official Colleges of Pharmacists, Santa Cristina Hospital pharmacist María Jesús López Muñoz and Carlos Muñoz, the Madrid college’s medicinal plants representative.
The group proposed allowing hospital and community pharmacies to prepare compounded medicines using standardized marijuana extracts. Participants also called for shared procedures covering preparation, dispensing, patient monitoring and adverse-event reporting, alongside additional training for health professionals, particularly prescribers.
Spain’s Royal Decree 903/2025 places prescribing within hospital specialist care and generally assigns preparation and dispensing to hospital pharmacies. It leaves room for separate regulations governing community pharmacies and recognizes their exceptional participation in preparing medicines for hospital pharmacy services.
Using neighborhood pharmacies could reduce geographic barriers, according to the Madrid college’s account. Muñoz pointed to communities in Madrid’s Sierra Norte region located more than an hour from their designated hospital.
