Pain patients: cannabis at health insurance costs
Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichCannabis as medicine: From 2016, more sick people in Germany could get access to the pain-relieving herbal ingredients. The health insurance companies should bear the costs for this. The law required for this has now been announced by Marlene Mortler (CSU), the federal government's drug commissioner.
"My goal is that in the future more people than before can get cannabis as medicine," Mortler told the "Welt". "I would rather have this new regulation yesterday than tomorrow."
High hurdles for patients
As early as 2011, the federal government advocated an amendment to the Narcotics Act and the approval of cannabis drugs. But currently the chronically ill have only very limited access to these drugs. They can be prescribed on prescription, but only if other therapies do not help enough. In addition, the drugs are expensive and therefore unaffordable for many patients. So far, the health insurance companies have only paid the costs in individual cases.
Growing oneself for therapeutic purposes as well as purchasing cannabis flowers or extracts is only legally permitted for a few pain patients. Everyone else is threatened with an investigation - in Germany, the possession and cultivation of hemp is illegal.
"Cannabis on prescription and paid for from the cash register makes sense for certain patient groups," says Jens Spahn, spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group. In addition, a clear regulation is better than when each individual judges the right to cultivate in their own garden.
Alternative in pain therapy
Pain patients in particular can benefit from cannabis. Not only does it brighten your mood, but it also relieves pain and relieves cramps, as various studies have shown. Cannabis also helps with nausea and stimulates the appetite. The so-called cannabinoids - above all tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - are decisive for these effects. For example, for patients with severe cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS or epilepsy, drugs containing cannabis are an alternative to the usual therapies.
As a useful and medicinal plant, cannabis has been a tradition for thousands of years. Effects such as more intense perception and euphoric feelings also make the hemp plant a globally popular intoxicant. In Germany it is the number one illegal drug.
Sources:
Press release of the CDU / CSU, 02/03/2015
Federal Ministry of Health, www.bmg.bund.de (accessed on February 5, 2015)
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