Across news sites, TV screens and radio shows, one headline stands out, the kind that makes noise: Spain joins the list of more than forty countries that have integrated cannabis into their healthcare systems. It will be for medical use only and dispensed exclusively in hospitals. This regulatory leap is being hailed as a guarantee of safety for patients and users.
However, for those who have spent years fighting for legalization, the new decree feels “too restrictive.” It will only be prescribed when traditional treatments no longer work. It is progress, yes, a rule that opens the path forward. But the struggle continues.
“The way I see this decree,” says Carola Pérez, president of the Spanish Observatory for Medicinal Cannabis, patient and full-time activist, “is that finally, and despite facing a lot, a lot of resistance from medical associations, some scientific societies and even parts of Spain’s parliament, we can celebrate.”
Throughout this long back-and-forth journey, full of turns and ideas, Pérez was invited to join a subcommittee of experts and, she says, revealing part of the backstage, “it was like starting a soccer match with the referee already bought.” Over these years of struggle, the activist lived through surreal moments, took hits from every side and, riding on the results, feels satisfied for having managed to “get a foot in the door so they can’t close it again.” What comes next? Breaking stigma and giving shape to legal uncertainty.
Under the new decree, patients will not have access to the cannabis flower, but they will have access to compounded formulations, standardized preparations distributed free of charge in public hospitals within the national health system. “The hard part and the trick is figuring out how to actually reach it,” Pérez admits, “because all across Europe, public hospitals are …
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Author: Hernán Panessi / High Times
