A bill to legalize medical marijuana products \u2014 on a very limited basis \u2014 in South Korea won much better odds for passage on Aug. 8 when the health ministry threw its support behind it.<\/p>\n
Korea\u2019s\u00a0Ministry of Food and Drug Safety<\/a>\u00a0announced that it would back and cooperate in a proposed reform of the Narcotics Control Act to legalize the importation of drugs derived from cannabinoids that have already received official approval for use overseas.<\/p>\n A bill to thusly tweak the country\u2019s notoriously harsh drug laws was introduced in January by Rep. Shin Chang- hyun of the ruling\u00a0Democratic Party of Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Democratic Party came to power in new elections after President Park Geun-Hye of the more conservative\u00a0Liberty Korea Party<\/a>\u00a0was impeached in December 2016, following\u00a0weeks of mass protests<\/a>\u00a0over a corruption scandal. The new president, Moon Jae-in, is yet to weigh in on the measure. His support would likely be decisive, as the\u00a0Democratic Party has the most seats in the National Assembly,\u00a0Korea Herald<\/a>\u00a0notes.<\/p>\n The proposed medical marijuana reform in South Korea would list approved products and establish protocols for patient access. Kwon Yong-hyun of the Korean Cannabis Association told\u00a0Marijuana Business Daily<\/a>\u00a0that the Health Ministry\u2019s announcement represents a \u201cbreakthrough.\u201d It is anticipated that approved products would include Epidiolex<\/a> and Sativex for conditions such as epilepsy, as well as the synthetic THC medication, Marinol, which is approved in the U.S. to stimulate the appetite of\u00a0AIDS sufferers and help cancer patients tolerate the side effects of chemotherapy.<\/p>\n Under the legislation, patients would be required to apply to the\u00a0Korea Orphan Drug Center<\/a>, an official agency established to facilitate access to medicines that are hard to find in the country. A physician\u2019s prescription would also be required, with approval considered on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n The Korean Cannabis Association\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0in July that it has \u201carranged for the supply of high-quality medical cannabis\u201d from Israeli company\u00a0Tikun Olam<\/a>, in a deal that also includes Canadian equity form\u00a0York Bridge Capital<\/a>. The Association\u2019s Kwon told Marijuana Business Daily: \u201cWe are making connections with patients\u2019 communities and associations of professionals. We have momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n However, this would appear to be a strategy to pressure authorities to expand the scope of the law, as the Korean government is currently not considering the legalization of herbaceous cannabis.<\/p>\n However limited this opening may seem, it is significant in the context of South Korea. As explored in an in-depth overview by\u00a0Korea Expos\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0magazine last year, cannabis became completely taboo under right-wing military dictator Park Chung-hee, who ruled the country from 1961 to 1979 and was the father of the recently ousted Park Geun-hye.<\/p>\n Afraid of contamination by the Western counterculture, the elder Park made conservative values the official ideology of the country and even declared South Korea to be \u201cdrug-free.\u201d This dogma remained unquestioned even after South Korea\u2019s democratic transition in 1988, prompted by a campaign of student protests.<\/p>\n However, the official fiction of a \u201cdrug-free\u201d country is getting more difficult to maintain, Last July,\u00a0Korea JoongAng Daily<\/a>\u00a0reported the embarrassing news of a significant jump in illegal drug seizures by customs agents. While most of the seized contraband was methamphetamine, 15 percent was cannabis.\u00a0Of course, authorities knew what to blame. Lee Seung-kyu, a director of the Customs Service, said: \u201cWe expect the amount of marijuana smuggled into Korea to rise further following legalization in some states in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think South Korea should legalize herbaceous cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Once \u2018Drug-Free,\u2019 South Korea Now Moves to Permit Medical Marijuana Products<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A bill to legalize medical marijuana products \u2014 on a very limited basis \u2014 in South Korea won much better odds for passage on Aug. 8 when the health ministry threw its support behind it. Korea\u2019s\u00a0Ministry of Food and Drug Safety\u00a0announced that it would back and cooperate in a proposedContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,5459,3156,1304,5460,5461,5049,5462,3894,139,5463,81,4613,3245,5464,420],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28637,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28636\/revisions\/28637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Even Limited Reform Is a \u2018Breakthrough\u2019<\/h4>\n
The Cannabis-Intolerant Legacy of a Dictatorship<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Once \u2018Drug-Free,\u2019 South Korea Now Moves to Permit Medical Marijuana Products<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"