MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - The lower house of the Czech parliament on Friday approved a bill allowing the use of hemp for medical purposes, the CTK news agency reported.
Hemp will only be available on doctor’s e-prescription and aims to prevent its misuse.
The bill is to make medical hemp “accessible to the patients who need it and most of whom use it now, unfortunately against the law,” Pavel Bem, the bill’s author, said.
The new legislation does not seek to legalize "the recreational use of hemp products," nor does it legalize home-growing of cannabis for medical purposes, which some promoters of marijuana called for, he said.
The State Drug Control Institute will issue five-year licenses to hemp growers, organize tenders and oversee compliance with the prescription system.
The bill will now go before the Senate.
