NCJ Number
200785
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 2002 Pages: 607-634
Date Published
2002
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This article discribes the history of the medical use of cannabis and its revival in Germany during the 1990’s.
Abstract
Interest in the therapeutic uses of marijuana increased in Germany during the second half of the 1990’s. Research concerning the medical usage of marijuana resumed in the 1990’s, and two German pharmaceutical companies are currently developing natural cannabis preparations. This article presents a history of the medical usage of marijuana and discusses the second Opium Law of 1929 that prohibited the recreational use of cannabis in Germany. Clinical research on THC begun in Germany in the 1990’s, and the mass media began to show an interest in the issue of the medical use of marijuana in 1994. Radio and television broadcasts typically criticize the current legal situation, showing sympathy for patients who are often threatened with criminal procedures. Maintaining that no prosecuted patient who had taken cannabis medically has ever been acquitted by a German court, this article highlights political developments, occurring since 1995, that support both the clinical research and the medical uses of marijuana. Notes, references