🇪🇪 Estonia
Medical cannabis is an unlicensed medicine and is only accessible through a special permit in Estonia.
To prescribe medical cannabis in Estonia, a specialist doctor must provide a medical justification for its use for the patient and prove that other licensed treatment methods have been exhausted. The application must be sent to the Estonian State Agency of Medicines (SAM), which a patient submits at a suitable pharmacy which has a licence to handle narcotic substances.
The pharmacy applies to SAM, which decides on granting a permit for the use of an unlicensed medical cannabis product. If positive, the decision is forwarded to the pharmacy which submits an order to the wholesaler which needs to obtain an import permit.
Once the pharmacy acquires it from the wholesaler, the patient can obtain it from the pharmacy. This process can be onerous for patients as many pharmacies and pharmaceutical wholesalers in Estonia may not have experience with cannabis, which may cause problems throughout the chain.