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Five people suffering from chronic pain brought the complaint
to a court in Cologne after Germany's Federal Institute for
Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) refused them permission to
grow the plant at home.
The court said the BfArM had to reconsider three of the requests
that it had rejected.
While the plaintiffs all had permits to buy and consume cannabis
for therapeutic purposes, they wanted to cultivate their own
because they could not afford to purchase the drug and their
health insurance did not cover it.
The court said three of the plaintiffs met the requirements to
produce the drug because it was "sufficiently certain" that
third parties would not be able to access the plants and
products.
"Until now it has not been legal for anyone to grow cannabis at
home but these seriously ill people will now be allowed to,"
court spokeswoman Stefanie Seifert said, adding that it
nonetheless remained illegal for others to grow it.
"This is not a carte blanche for everyone to start growing
cannabis at home - they have to be seriously ill people for whom
nothing else works other than cannabis."
The complaints brought by the other two plaintiffs were rejected
- the first because the court was not satisfied that
unauthorized persons could be prevented from accessing the
plants and the second because the court did not think the
plaintiff had exhausted all other treatment options.
The court stressed that it was necessary to assess whether
individuals met the requirements to grow their own cannabis on
an case-by-case basis.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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Germany
allows seriously ill patients to grow their own cannabis
