Ukraine Legalizes Medical Cannabis During Wartime

While many federal lawmakers throughout the world have yet to make legalizing medical cannabis a legislative priority in their respective countries, Ukraine has pushed the issue across the finish line during a time of war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a legalization bill into law Feb. 13, which he believes will help his citizens with various health conditions, including veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), to find relief, Reuters reported.

While the present war between Russia and Ukraine began as an international conflict in early 2014, with a protest that led to the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and Russia’s subsequent annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea, according to the Washington Post, the war escalated in February 2022, when Russian launched a full-scale invasion and began occupying more of Ukraine.

Two weeks before the Ukrainian parliament advanced draft legislation to legalize medical cannabis in July 2023, Zelensky expressed his support for reform during a June 28 speech in front in parliament on the 27th anniversary of the country’s adoption of its Constitution.

Specifically, the president was talking about the country’s need to facilitate both physical and mental rehabilitation for its people in the lead up to his comments on cannabis.

“All the world's best practices, all the most effective policies, all the solutions, no matter how difficult or unusual they may seem to us, must be applied in Ukraine so that Ukrainians, all our citizens, do not have to endure the pain, stress and trauma of war,” Zelensky said. “In particular, we must finally fairly legalize cannabis-based medicines for all those who need them, with appropriate scientific research and controlled Ukrainian production.”

The law is expected to come into effect as early as August—six months after its officially published—with Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers along with its Ministry of Health overseeing regulations for the sale and distribution of medical cannabis, which will be made available as treatment to those with a doctor’s prescription and dispensed via roughly 200 pharmacies throughout the country.

According to estimates from the Health Ministry, roughly 6 million patients in Ukraine currently need medicines based on medical cannabis, Ukrainian advocate Iryna Rachynska told Forbes.

“This number is constantly increasing because Russia continues to attack Ukraine every day; the number of victims increases, and every day without medicine, these people experience unbearable pain, both physical and psychological,” Rachynska said. “The need for such drugs continues to grow every day.”

In addition to PTSD, the law intends grant access to medical cannabis for people with cancer, severe pain and other serious illnesses. Patients would be able to obtain electronic prescriptions from their doctors.

While Ukraine’s ministries are tasked with establishing regulations for the domestic cultivation of medical cannabis, the country will also begin importing products as soon as late 2024 to ensure qualified patients have an adequate supply, Forbes reported.