Jan 26, 2025

Medical Cannabis Prescriptions Open to GPs in the Czech Republic

General practitioners in the Czech Republic will soon be authorized to prescribe medical cannabis for chronic pain.

Under a new decree set to take effect in April, patients will be able to obtain up to a three-month supply on a single prescription.

According to data from the State Institute for Drug Control (SรšKL), 318.7 kilograms of medical cannabis were prescribed last year, with an average of 3,300 patients using it monthly. Cannabis is most often used to manage intractable pain that other medications fail to alleviate. It is also commonly prescribed for cancer-related symptoms, the side effects of chemotherapy, AIDS, Parkinsonโ€™s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

Until now, only around 250 specialists were authorized to prescribe cannabis. However, general practitioners will soon be included in this group.

The Ministry of Health stated in its explanatory report that expanding prescribing rights to general practitioners for chronic intractable pain is โ€œa reasonable step.โ€ Other conditions, however, will remain under the oversight of specialists.

The new decree will also allow doctors to prescribe cannabis to patients under the age of 18 in specific cases. These include palliative care for terminally ill children or those with cancer diagnoses.

Doctors will no longer be required to report detailed patient data annually to SรšKL, a move that may streamline cannabis treatment procedures. Since 2015, when medical cannabis became available in the Czech Republic, doctors have prescribed nearly 940 kilograms of it. Patients are legally entitled to up to 180 grams of dried cannabis per month or its equivalent in extract form.

The Czech Republic legalized medical cannabis in 2013, with the first patients receiving prescriptions the following year. In 2020, health insurance companies began covering 90% of the cost, up to 30 grams per month. For example, the General Health Insurance Company spent 17.2 million crowns in 2022 for approximately 3,200 patients. That year, total public health insurance expenditures exceeded 420 billion crowns.

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Cannabis use for self-medication is widespread in the Czech Republic. According to the National Coordination Center for Drugs and Addictionโ€™s 2024 report on illegal drugs, up to 25% of adults over the age of 15 have used cannabis medicinally at some point in their lives. In the past year, 9โ€“14% of adultsโ€”amounting to 800,000 to 1.3 million peopleโ€”reported self-medicating with cannabis.

The report noted that while recreational cannabis use declines with age, its use for self-medication increases, particularly among those over 55.

This legislative change is part of broader reforms that include amendments to the criminal code. These amendments would legalize the cultivation of up to three cannabis plants with a THC content exceeding 1% and allow individuals to possess up to 50 grams of cannabis in public or 25 grams at home.

Meanwhile, the Pirate Party has proposed introducing a regulated cannabis market in the Czech Republic. At a press conference this week, party leaders claimed such a market could generate up to three billion crowns annually for the state budget.

Their proposal includes cannabis associations for joint cultivation and the sale of cannabis in specialized establishments.

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