Veto the importation of marijuana flower can affect up to 5,000 – 07/20/2023 – Health

The decision by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) to prohibit the importation of marijuana flower for medicinal purposes could affect up to 5,000 patients in the country who use the plant in search of relief from chronic diseases, such as epilepsy and fibromyalgia.

The estimate was made by companies that work in the importation of cannabis in natura. Only FlowerMed, which disclosed the estimate this Thursday (20), serves 2,600 patients who imported the plant. Now, advocates of the flower’s medicinal use are concerned that the decision will affect the health of patients who are already showing improvement after use.

The agency says that among the reasons for the ban are the high degree of risk of diversion for illicit purposes and the validity of international drug control treaties to which Brazil is a signatory. Anvisa also states that combustion and inhalation are not pharmaceutical forms or routes of administration of the product intended for health treatment.

However, according to Caroline Heinz, CEO of FlowerMed, Anvisa’s decision was 100% irresponsible. “They should regulate what isn’t working, not ban it.” Heinz claims that it is common for patients to use the combined flower of the oil, which is still allowed by Anvisa, while others use only the vaporized form.

There are cases, cites Heinz, of patients who do not feel the effect of the oil and, therefore, sought and found a solution for pain in the flower of medical marijuana. “With the inhaled form, it is possible to have the absorption of cannabinoids and it is immediate”, she explains.

“The person who is [em crise] you won’t wait the 40 minutes for the oil to take effect. The oil, despite the loss of up to 45% of the cannabinoids, stays in the person’s system for six hours, unlike vaping. Therefore, many doctors prescribe the use in combination.”

“We’re getting messages from desperate patients, people don’t know what to do,” she says.

The CEO of Flower Med also says that medical cannabis has been widespread and regulated in Brazil. “With this decision, Anvisa is removing the role of regulator and playing [a decisão] for the Legislature,” she says. “Is everyone going to have to go to court to have the right to treatment?”

Luiza Helena Paiva Dias, 66, was diagnosed with fibromyalgia six years ago. She tried the cannabidiol-based oil, but it had no effect. This year, with medical supervision, she decided to try the flower of medical marijuana in order to improve the severe pain resulting from the rheumatological disease that affects her muscles.

With the news of the ban on the importation of medicinal marijuana flower, she says she is scared. “Now that I was having a good improvement, it was forbidden”, she laments, who calculates that she had an 80% improvement in pain after she started using the flower.

Before, she had to live with pain every day and needed to combine medications that would stop her pain with antidepressants. Today, she says, she uses the flower every other day, and although she still feels pain, it is less intense and constant.

“I wouldn’t want to stop using it”, she says, who reports that at first she had difficulty understanding that the medicinal marijuana flower was a treatment and not a drug. “I’m evangelical, until I get it into my head that it’s not a drug, it’s difficult. I started studying, reading, and I saw the benefits”, she guarantees.