Italy: Difficulties to obtain cannabis-based medicines

While cannabis is still listed in the Italian Pharmacopoeia, there are no cannabis-based medicines available in Italy. Patients with multiple sclerosis or other conditions where cannabis or derivatives might offer some benefit, must obtain a special import permit from the Health Ministry for each prescription of their physician.

Drugs registered in other countries, such as Nabilone or Dronabinol (Marinol) or cannabis available in Dutch pharmacies, can be prescribed by Italian doctors, but the procedure to import them is very complicated. Since these drugs are controlled drugs (narcotics) a single prescription cannot be issued for more than 30 daily doses. Moreover, such drugs cannot be obtained through an ordinary pharmacy, but only through the pharmacy of the "local health agency" (ASL), usually the nearest hospital. Furthermore, Italian physicians are very reluctant to prescribe such a controversial drug.

To the knowledge of the Italian Association for Therapeutic Cannabis (Associazione per la Cannabis Terapeutica, ACT) there are only a few patients in Italy obtaining nabilone (most of them for MS), and probably one only with the permit to import medical cannabis from The Netherlands. Many of them have not been able to follow their therapy regularly due to the problems described above.

(Source: Associazione per la Cannabis Terapeutica, www.medicalcannabis.it)