🇫🇮 Finland
Medical cannabis (flower & oil products) is an unlicensed medicine and is strictly controlled in Finland, requiring a special permit granted by the Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea).
Doctors who are pain management specialists at university hospitals, as well as health centre doctors, can prescribe medical cannabis with a special permit application. To prescribe unlicensed medical cannabis products, doctors must justify that the patient has exhausted all other authorised medicines and that a prescription would be beneficial for treatment.
The treatable pathologies for which unlicensed medical cannabis products have been prescribed in Finland include multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, severe rheumatism, spinal cord injuries, fibromyalgia, and nervous and chronic pain.
The number of prescriptions of unlicensed medical cannabis products has dropped in Finland as health agencies have warned doctors off the prescription of Bedrocan, highlighting that Sativex, which has a marketing authorisation, should be prescribed.