Medical cannabis in Ukraine: the first official permit issued
4 June 09:41
Ukraine has authorized the import of medical cannabis by issuing the first permit for its substance. This is reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the press service of the State Service of Ukraine on Medicines and Drug Control.
“On June 2, 2025, the State Service issued the first permit for the right to import medical cannabis into the territory of Ukraine,” the statement said.
It is indicated that the permit was issued for a substance that is registered in Ukraine and included in the State Register of Medicines of Ukraine.
Medical cannabis was legalized in Ukraine last year
on August 16, 2024, a law on the legalization of medical cannabis came into force in Ukraine, allowing doctors to prescribe cannabis-based medicines.
The Ukrainian Medical Cannabis Association, citing information from the Ministry of Health, reports that more than 6,000,000 people in Ukraine need medical cannabis-based medicines.
In 2024, after lengthy discussions, the Law “On Regulation of the Turnover of Plants of the Cannabis Genus for Medical, Industrial, Scientific and Scientific-Technical Purposes” was adopted. And now Ukraine regulates the circulation of cannabis not only for medical purposes, but also for industrial and scientific activities, which greatly simplifies the procedure for registering industrial hemp crops.
Only legal entities that obtain the appropriate license and adhere to good cultivation practices will be able to grow medical cannabis in a closed ground (greenhouse) under round-the-clock video surveillance and with access for the National Police. Each plant will also have an individual code to track the movement of plants to the patient.
Cannabis medicines to appear in pharmacies in 2025
In early January of this year, the first medicines based on medical cannabis were registered in Ukraine – oral drops of a Spanish brand. Now we are only talking about importing such medicines. ” Kommersant Ukrainsky covered this issue.
Medicinal cannabis products will be sold exclusively in manufacturing pharmacies, i.e. those that produce medicines according to individual prescriptions and at the request of medical institutions. There are currently only about two hundred such pharmacies in Ukraine.
Pharmacies that will manufacture medicines must have three licenses: for retail trade, manufacturing of drugs, and trafficking of narcotic substances.
Such medicines will be sold in pharmacies on the basis of an electronic prescription from a doctor in the patient’s name.
It is important for Ukraine to launch its own production. In the future, this will reduce the cost of drugs and make them more affordable for patients.
What is medical cannabis?
The medical value of cannabis lies in the cannabinoids, the compounds found in the plant. Most of the known cannabinoids have not been well researched so far. The most well-known are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC or THC in Latin) and cannabidiol (CBD). These are the two cannabinoids most often mentioned when talking about medical cannabis.
Tetrahydrocannabinol is the “narcotic” component of cannabis. It is because of it that hemp was classified as a dangerous drug in the XX century. Medical cannabis is not only hemp with a low content of the narcotic compound THC, but also those with a low percentage of tetrahydrocannabinol.
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Treatment with cannabis
The feasibility of therapeutic use of cannabis has been confirmed by scientists for the following conditions
- neurological diseases: multiple sclerosis, epilepsy (according to preliminary findings, cannabis can have a positive effect on the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Tourette’s syndrome);
- diseases of the digestive tract (according to convincing evidence, cannabis has a significant positive effect on alleviating side effects during chemotherapy in oncology (especially nausea and vomiting) and side effects associated with HIV/AIDS treatment;
- according to preliminary conclusions, a positive effect is also observed in relation to ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, as well as in inflammation and intestinal motility dysfunction;
- in addition, cannabis-based products are used to increase appetite in diseases that lead to weight loss and exhaustion);
- drug addiction and mental health problems (preliminary evidence shows that cannabis is effective as a substitute therapy for opioids, stimulants (including cocaine) and alcohol, as well as for overcoming anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders and sleep disorders);
- chronic pain of neuropathic origin;
- palliative care (mainly cannabis-based products are used to relieve a range of symptoms in cancer patients in need of palliative care, including pain relief, eating disorders, and sleep).
In addition, it has been scientifically proven that phytocannabinoids have a highly effective antimicrobial effect (on staphylococci and streptococci), and also demonstrate a significant positive effect in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, various diseases of the immune system, arthritis and rheumatism, asthma, various forms of sclerosis, herpes, diabetic neuropathy, anorexia, and many other ailments.
The use of hemp (Cannabis) in the world
The use of cannabis for medical purposes (or, depending on the specifics of regulation, the use of cannabis-based drugs) is allowed in more than fifty countries, including Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, etc.
