The Verkhovna Rada has adopted in the first reading draft law No. 7457 on regulating the circulation of cannabis plants for medical, scientific and industrial purposes.
The adoption of the document as a basis was supported by 268 people’s deputies at the plenary session on Thursday, said co-chair of the faction “European Solidarity” Irina Gerashchenko.
“The long-suffering bill on medical cannabis was adopted in the first reading. It was supported by 268 deputies, including part of the faction “EU” (“European Solidarity”). “I also voted in favor, although there are many questions to the bill, it needs to be finalized for the second reading,” she wrote in her Telegram channel.
The parliamentarian emphasized that such a law should help in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pain reduction in cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and other conditions.
“Unfortunately, this bill is not so much about medicine as it is about industrial cannabis cultivation and the government’s corrupt schemes regarding permits and the development of huge funding streams. Our faction will submit amendments, will finalize the bill for the second reading, so that the emphasis was exactly on medicine and pain relief, but not on industrial cultivation,” – specified the parliamentarian.
As noted in the explanatory note, the bill proposes to create regulatory conditions for the legal limited circulation of cannabis, cannabis resin, extracts and tinctures of cannabis for the purposes defined by this document, in particular, for their use for medical, industrial purposes, scientific and scientific-technical activities, as well as its varieties in certain areas of activity.
The Government considers it necessary to regulate the issues related to the organization of activities at each stage of such circulation of cannabis, including operations on import, export, transportation on the territory of Ukraine, storage and sale of cannabis, to contribute to the improvement of the level and quality of medical care of the population by ensuring the realization of the right to health care with the use of more effective medicines and methods of treatment, in particular in the field of palliative care, which, among other things, are based on symptomatic treatment.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted the draft law No. 7457 to the Verkhovna Rada in June 2022. The profile committee of the Parliament on the health of the nation recommended to accept it as a basis. Later, in September, the head of the committee, Mykhailo Radutskyy (Servant of the People faction), said that there would probably not be enough votes in the Rada to support the bill on medical cannabis.
