Fifty hospitals. Two cannabis preparations. And not a single prescription to pick up from the chemist downstairs. Spain is finally putting its medical cannabis rules to work. Curaleaf expected to begin supplying around fifty hospitals in October, a full year after the government approved the system. The two registered preparations are called CAN-1 and CAN-2. Hardly exciting names, but this is hospital medicine, not a coffeeshop menu.
One preparation contains mainly THC, the other mainly CBD. Hospital pharmacists use them to make medicine for individual patients. And the rules are pretty specific. We're talking severe epilepsy that hasn't responded to treatment, muscle stiffness caused by multiple sclerosis, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, and chronic pain that other treatments haven't managed to control. A specialist has to make the decision and explain why the usual options weren't enough.
Spain has roughly 850 hospitals, so fifty is still a small start. But for somebody who's spent years trying treatments that haven't helped, a small start isn't nothing. The planned deliveries are one thing. Actually getting prescriptions filled is another. For now, two rather boring product codes are carrying quite a lot of expectations.
