Polish cultivation of medical marijuana and raising the permissible limit of THC in cannabis seeds - these are the topics MP Jaroslaw Sachajko is to discuss with the heads of specific ministries this Friday, PAP reported. We asked MP Sachajko how he assessed the chances of the talks succeeding, in the context of the fact that in January the Health Minister explicitly said there was no chance of changes in these two areas. Here's what we learned.
Polish medical marijuana cultivation and raising the THC limit in cannabis seeds
As early as this Friday, MP Jaroslaw Sachajko is scheduled to meet with the relevant ministers to discuss, among other things, changes to the Anti-Drug Addiction Act that would allow the launch of Polish medical marijuana cultivation and raising the permissible THC concentration in fiber hemp. Interestingly, in January, during the work of the standing subcommittee on bioeconomy and agricultural innovation, a government representative announced that there would be no changes on both issues. He argued his position on the grounds of "public good," his view being that such changes would lead to illegal marijuana production under the guise of, for example, cultivation for medical purposes.
However, as he told PAP, this Friday MP Sachajko will meet with the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Health to, as he put it, "finalize" statutory changes that would allow Polish cultivation of medical marijuana and raise the permissible level of THC concentration in fiber hemp from 0.2 to 0.3%.
It seems that there is an agreement on this at the moment, so on Friday there will be a meeting already with specific ministers and I hope that we will finalize these two laws.
-informed MP Jaroslaw Sachajko
We asked MP Sachajko what chances of success he thinks the talks with ministers scheduled for Friday have in the context of what was said by government representatives in January, and whether perhaps something has happened since then that has changed the approach of government representatives to cannabis.
I view the chances very positively.
-responded the MP briefly
It remains to wait for the results of the talks. If they are successful, we can confidently talk about a breakthrough.
Raising the permissible level of THC in fiber hemp is very important. First, it reduces the risk of accidental exceedances of the permissible concentration. Exceedances can have fatal consequences for farmers or processors, there have even been more than once situations of temporary arrest of a farmer or a hemp entrepreneur/processor precisely for a small exceedance of the permissible concentration of THC, which at the moment is 0.2%. On the other hand, raising the permissible limit will give farmers more varieties to choose from for cultivation.
Polish cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes is also a very important issue, but much more intricate than cannabis for seed purposes, and a separate text will soon appear on this topic. One thing is certain, however - Polish cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes should be established as soon as possible.