Here’s Why Malta’s Medical Cannabis Industry Is Failing Its Patients
Medical cannabis was legalised in Malta back in 2018, after months of debates, stakeholder meetings, and risk assessments.
In 2021, three years after medical cannabis was introduced in Malta, 1,377 patients were confirmed to be benefitting from it. Many of these patients were able to use medical cannabis as a replacement for other pharmaceutical medicine that came with bad side effects.
However, with all the bureaucracy and paperwork that using medical cannabis comes with, some patients are starting to give up on Malta’s medical cannabis industry.
Over the last few days, medical cannabis clinics and pharmacies were informed that they can no longer provide the medicine without the patient’s doctor signing the white control card each time.
While this was always the law, it only started being enforced recently, after the signature rule was waived during the pandemic to minimise contact and cross-contamination.
It is obviously impractical for patients to obtain a signature month and highlights an unnecessary obsession that authorities have with paperwork.
It also signifies an increase in expenses for something which is already very pricey and costs patients hundreds every year.
Let’s break these existing expenses down – a patient needs to start off by paying a hefty amount for the initial one-hour consultation with their doctor, which could cost as much as €80.
Every consultation or follow-up with the doctor will also be charged, as let’s face it, specialised doctors did not spend all those years studying to hold appointments for free. A consultation can cost as much as €50 for half an hour.
Then, there’s the medical cannabis permit, which needs to be renewed every six months against a fee of around €50.
Moving on, there’s a €5 or €10 fee for each prescription granted by the doctor. So, if a patient needs two prescriptions per month at €10 each, with most of them needing more, that’s another €20.
The renewal of the control card will then cost around €10, and a travel document for patients to be able to take their medicine with them also costs around €10.
And only now have we arrived at the expenses incurred from the medicine itself, with Malta’s medical cannabis being some of the most expensive in all of Europe.
One of the cheapest flowers available would be the Cannabis Flos 1A White Widow strain, at €10 per gram. However, it can only be purchased in 10-gram containers, so that’s easily another €100 per month.
If a patient would rather take THC oil, then the cost will shoot up to around €200 per month.
Now, add all of these numbers together, and you’re looking at a pretty hefty bill just to be able to acquire your medicine.
So, medical cannabis in Malta isn’t only ridiculously expensive and cost ridden, but it’s also hard to acquire. Some patients have reported having to wait months just to get their one-month permit approved by the health authorities.
And it surely doesn’t help to have Malta’s Superintendence for Public Health Charmaine Gauci actively against the use of cannabis as a medicine – and it seems this influence is seeping through.
The newly-imposed trip to the doctor for the signed control card is also highly unrealistic for patients who struggle with mobility.
Lovin Malta has spoken to two patients already, and intends to speak to more – one of them being an amputee who has been using medical cannabis for pain management for the last three years, and another being a 60-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis who is currently immobile.
Asking immobile patients to have to go to their doctor for a signature that could very well be obtained online is just downright inhumane, and frankly, a waste of time.
The system can definitely be improved to become more patient-friendly, especially given that it’s already so expensive in order to acquire a medical cannabis license.
Digital signatures are accepted across all European Union countries, and are even accepted in Malta in a number of other instances – so why is it not the case for the white control card?
Do you think Malta’s medical cannabis system needs to become more patient-friendly?
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