Medical Cannabis Prescriptions Are Decreasing In Poland

Medical cannabis reform was implemented in Poland in 2017, and as of November 2022, the nation’s doctors were approving roughly 3,000 medical cannabis patients a month. After years of an increasing medical cannabis patient base, Poland’s medical cannabis approvals are reportedly declining.

“New regulations in Poland require in-person doctor visits for medical cannabis prescriptions, leading to a sharp drop from 68,000 in October 2024 to 28,000 by December.” reported Born2Invest in its original coverage.

“This change is not surprising at all, because medical cannabis was largely used not for treatment, but for recreation. The new regulations limit this phenomenon,” commented Jakub Kosikowski, spokesman for the Supreme Medical Chamber, according to Born2Invest.

While medical cannabis policy in Poland appears to be backtracking, there is an effort to modernize the nation’s adult-use policies. In November 2024, a legislative committee in Poland sent a cannabis reform proposal to Prime Minister Donald Tusk for his consideration.

Members of the Polish Parliamentary Committee on Petitions moved forward with the proposal which would decriminalize up to 15 grams of cannabis for personal use by adults in addition to decriminalizing home cultivation of one plant. However, the measure still has additional political hurdles before becoming law.

Currently, nearly five dozen countries around the world have adopted medical cannabis legalization to some degree, and Uruguay, Canada, Malta, Luxembourg, Germany, and South Africa have adopted national adult-use legalization measures.