# Netherlands: Health minister considers stopping the sale of



## Goldie (Apr 4, 2005)

IACM-Bulletin of 3 April 2005
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The Netherlands: Health minister considers stopping the sale of 
medicinal cannabis in pharmacies

Health Minister Han Hoogervorst is considering abandoning the 
legal sale of medicinal cannabis in pharmacies and closing the 
Office of Medicinal Cannabis. In response to questions from the 
Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives of the Dutch 
parliament) he said on 17 March that he intends to decide on the 
future of the program after summer.

Questions were related to the status of the program, which 
started to sell cannabis in pharmacies in September 2003 and 
lost 400,000 Euros in 2004. Hoogervorst said that in times of 
budget cutbacks, such a project was destined to be stopped. He 
also noted that doctors were not very positive about prescribing 
cannabis to patients and that patients prefer to buy it from coffee-
shops.

Hoogervorst also claimed that the medicinal properties of 
cannabis have never been proven and that the use of cannabis 
may cause side-effects such as psychoses. But the Office of 
Medicinal Cannabis asserted that patients do benefit from 
cannabis and psychoses occur only rarely. The PvdA (Partij van 
de Arbeid, Labour Party) called on the minister to put more 
energy into the success of the program.

(Sources: expatica.com of 18 March 2005, De Volkskrant of 
18 March 2005, NRC Handelsblad of 18 March 2005)


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