By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
In 2017, Greece became the seventh country in the European Union to legalize medicinal cannabis after the signing of the Joint Ministerial Decision moved medical marijuana from the more-restrictive Table A narcotics category to Table B.
At the time, Finland, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic had already taken steps to allow legal medical marijuana use.
The new Greek law permitted medicinal cannabis use by certified patients with chronic pain, neuropathy, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, eating disorders, cancer, or any other conditions or symptoms deemed by a physician to be treatable with marijuana.
In March 2018, the government lifted a ban on cultivation and production.
Now, nearly a year-and-a-half after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Health Minister Andrea Xanthos announced that they would be changing the Law on Control and Drugs to permit medicinal cannabis use, Greece issued its first two cultivation and processing licenses on Monday. Another twelve will be awarded by the end of 2018.
In a joint-ministry statement, junior agriculture minister Vassilis Kokkalis said that they expect the greenhouse cultivation to create many new jobs.
Larissa-based Biomecann and Bioprocann, which operates in Corinth, were the two license recipients and are expected to collectively hire at least 100 people and invest more than $25 million into their newly-approved operations.
