The BMG will facilitate access to Medical-cannabis for the chronically ill. A bill to bring the necessary changes in narcotics law and other regulations is on the way.

Cannabis could previously only be used on an exception permission and by import from abroad for medical purposes. Now the federal government wants to facilitate access to cannabis as a medicine. On Friday, the Federal Ministry of Health submitted its draft bill. The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) should therefore be regarded as State Cannabis Agency coordinate and control the cultivation and quality-assured supply of cannabis in Germany.

According to the bill, BfArM would outsource the cultivation of cannabis, buy up the entire harvest and sell to manufacturers of cannabis drugs, wholesalers or pharmacies. It is also planning on controlling the price of cannabis by setting price ranges on the finished product for wholesalers and pharmacists. 

In addition to dried cannabis, flowers and cannabis extracts in pharmaceutical grade will be prescribed. The...