DUTCH PHARMACIES TO SUPPLY CANNABIS

The Netherlands will this week become the world's first country to make
cannabis available as a prescription drug to treat chronically ill patients, a
Dutch health official said.

Pharmacies can sell cannabis to sufferers of cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis
and Tourette's Syndrome in a ground-breaking acceptance of the drug's medicinal
use.

"It's a historic step. What is unique is that we are making it available on a
prescription-only basis through pharmacies," said Willem Scholten, head of the
Office of Medicinal Cannabis at the Dutch Health Ministry.

The Netherlands, where the sale of cannabis in coffee shops is regulated by the
government, has a history of pioneering social reforms.

The government, which recognised many chronically ill people were already
buying cannabis from coffee shops, said it should only be prescribed by doctors
when conventional treatments had been exhausted or if other drugs had side
effects.

Two companies in the Netherlands have been given licences to grow special
strains of cannabis to sell to the Health Ministry, which will package and
label the drug in tubs for the pharmacies.

The Health Ministry recommends patients dilute the cannabis - which will be in
the form of dried marijuana flowers from the hemp plant rather than its hashish
resin - in tea or turn it into a spray in a nebuliser.