As soon as resolution CFM 2.326 was published – preventing the prescription of Cannabis-based medicines for various diseases – there was a flood of complaints and requests to the Court for the Federal Council of Medicine to revoke the decision considered retrograde by a series of experts.
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On Tuesday (25), after pressure from the medical community and actions against the country's highest federal medicine body, the CFM temporarily suspended the decision, which was celebrated on social media
Now, the decision of whether or not to prescribe a cannabidiol-based medicine back to the doctor, which must follow the rules that had already been established by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
Cannabidiol is a derivative of Cannabis – a plant commonly called marijuana – whose advanced studies show effectiveness for a series of diseases, including depression, anxiety, chronic pain, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
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In addition to preventing the prescription of the drug for all these and other diseases, the CFM measure also prohibited doctors from giving lectures or giving courses outside the scientific environment on the use of cannabidiol and other cannabis-derived products.
Understand the controversy
Resolution 2.324/2022 established rules for the prescription of cannabidiol-based medications: only use would be permitted for the treatment of refractory epilepsy in children and adolescents with Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or tuberous sclerosis complex. For other types of epilepsy and other diseases, the substance could no longer be prescribed, which provoked outrage among patients and the medical community.
This Wednesday (24), therefore, the CFM revoked the controversial resolution. The act was published in the Official Gazette of the Union:
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Politicization in the middle of elections?
The Federal Council of Medicine has already shown itself to be aligned with some policies of the current federal government, including supporting and encouraging the distribution and use of hydroxychloroquine even when there were already studies showing its ineffectiveness for treating Covid-19.
The use of cannabidiol is “morally” condemned by supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who are against the medicinal use of the active ingredients of marijuana.
In an interview with UOL, the president of the Council of Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein, and institutional president of Instituto Coalizão Saúde, Claudio Lottenberg, speaks of “politicization” behind the CFM decision that restricted medical prescriptions for cannabidiol.
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According to Anvisa data, more than 100 patients undergo some type of treatment using the product and more than 66 plant-based medicines were imported in 2021. Currently, around 50 countries have already regulated the medicinal and industrial use of cannabis and of hemp.
(With Brazil Agency)
