Imports of medical cannabis to be allowed from March

Government will allow medical cannabis to be imported for self-treatment purposes starting next month. / Gettyimagebank

By Kim Jae-heun

The government will allow medical cannabis to be imported for self-treatment purposes starting next month.

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), Tuesday, the revised law related to medical marijuana will take effect March 12 to allow more treatment options for patients with rare diseases.

Under the new regulations, medicines with marijuana content, which have been approved overseas for medical treatment, will be brought in through the Korea Orphan & Essential Drug Center. Patients with rare or incurable diseases can buy four types of therapeutic cannabis commercially available in the United States and Europe through the center when there is no other treatment available here.

However, unlicensed medicines or food using marijuana, hemp oil and marijuana extracts will still be banned from the import list.

To obtain the medicine, the patients will have to submit several documents to the MFDS including their medical records, and a prescription and doctor's note proving there is no domestically available alternative medicine. If the ministry approves it after review, the patients can get the medicine through the center.

This is a big change for Korea where any kind of product related to cannabis has been prohibited from being exported, imported, manufactured and traded except for the purpose of academic research.

The authorities decided to permit therapeutic cannabis recently with the global trend to use drugs like cannabidiol (CBD), as well as continuous requests for permission from patients here.

Cannabidiol is made from a substance found in the gum, leaf and upper section of the plant where the flower blooms.

“After 48 years of the crackdown on hemp, the revised law has finally allowed the use of medical cannabis here,” the Organization of Legalizing Medical Cannabis in Korea said, last month. “But the strict regulation and limits on types of available medicines still prevent wider options for patients. To enhance the effectiveness of the law, the government has to permit more cannabis-based medicines.”