Commissioneer Hendrik Streeck doesn’t mince his words. He says the medical cannabis system is being abused by ‘dealers in white coats,’ criticising clinics that issue prescriptions ‘like a pizza service’, without genuine medical examination.
In a recent interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he said that while he was not opposed to medical cannabis he said there were not enough controls in place.
“Cannabis is now being promoted as a medicine for virtually anything, often without any evidence. And above all, it has become far too easy to obtain” he said.
“Often there’s no doctor–patient contact at all. An online form replaces the examination, the prescription is issued abroad, and then filled here in Germany. That leaves me speechless. Everything happens under the label of a ‘medical prescription,’ but in reality, it’s often about ordinary drug use” said Streeck.
“The number of private prescriptions for cannabis has increased by more than 80 percent this year, and 83 percent of those are issued to men. As far as doctors are concerned, we’ve created dealers in white coats. It’s absolutely right that Federal Health Minister Nina Warken is now taking corrective action.”
He went on to suggest that cannabis flower could be restricted as part of the new reforms, meaning medical prescriptions would be limited ‘to capsules or drops’.
The new right-leaning Federal Government has already published proposals to restrict telemedicine prescribing. While these are still making their way through the legislative process, the debate is seeping further into mainstream political discourse.
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