German Patients Report Improvements Following Use Of High-THC Flower

Doctors in Germany started legally prescribing cannabis to suffering patients in 2017, and since that time the nation’s medical cannabis program has grown in size by a considerable amount. Germany is now home to the largest legal medical cannabis program in Europe.

Unlike many other nations that only permit access to limited medical cannabis products, such as cannabis-derived pharmaceuticals, Germany allows patients to consume cannabis flower for therapeutic purposes.

An international team of researchers recently conducted a survey of German medical cannabis patients, focusing on the reported effects and benefits of high-THC cannabis flower consumption. Below is information about the survey’s findings via a news release from NORML:

Hannover, Germany: Patients prescribed high-THC prescription-grade cannabis chemovars report them to be safe and effective, according to data published in the journal Pharmacopsychiatry.

An international team of investigators surveyed more than 1,000 German patients authorized to use medical cannabis. (Plant cannabis and cannabinoid treatments, such as dronabinol, were legalized by prescription use in Germany in 2017.) Survey respondents obtained lab-tested cannabis flower from regional pharmacies. Potency of the most frequently used chemovar was 22 percent.

The overwhelming majority of patients surveyed reported medical cannabis to be effective at treating their symptoms. Patients reported no significant differences between chemovars, most of which were dominant in THC and low in CBD content. The most commonly reported side effects were dry mouth, increased appetite, and somnolence.

“Patients self-reported very good efficacy and tolerability [to] medical cannabis,” the study’s authors concluded.

Pharmaceutical-grade cannabis flower in Europe, Israel, and elsewhere typically contain THC levels of 20 percent or greater.

The study’s findings push back against claims that cannabis strains higher in THC pose unique risks to health or that there is an absence of research supporting the efficacy of medical cannabis chemovars above 10 percent THC.

Full text of the study, “Medical use of different cannabis strains: results from a large prospective study in Germany,” appears in Pharmacopsychiatry.