[Cannabis as Medicine: Safe Use of Special Regulations]

In 2017, the legislator created a special regulation for medical cannabis in Germany. Medical cannabis can also be prescribed without marketing authorization at the expense of the statutory health insurance, if other forms of therapy are not sufficiently effective. Before starting therapy with a cannabis medicine outside of approved indications, an application for reimbursement must be submitted to the health insurance company. Cannabis medicines are mainly prescribed for the treatment of chronic pain. There are some rules to be observed when prescribing cannabis medicines: The information according to Section 9 of the Narcotic Drugs Prescription Ordinance must be complete and clear. Data on the therapeutic success and the safe use of the cannabis medicines are collected in a five-year follow-up survey. According to first interim results of this survey, many side effects have an influence on the vigilance of patients. The risk of falling is increased, especially in older patients. In the medium term, the special regulation described above should become dispensable due to the approval of cannabis-based finished medicinal products.