How to legally use cannabis flowers

There are no restrictions on the use of any parts of hemp plants containing small amounts of narcotic substances, or requirements for the destruction of residues after cleaning the seeds of these plants, by the current regulatory legal acts concerning the circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors.

During the round table “Experience of using the therapeutic elements of industrial hemp as raw materials for food, cosmetics, biologically active or feed additives” held within the framework of the training of the 5th edition of the students of the Hemp University, the concept of amending the current regulatory and legal a base, the implementation of which will make it possible for the citizens of our country not to visit pharmacies to purchase pharmacological preparations made on the basis of the therapeutic properties of a plant for a completely unaffordable price for most Ukrainians, but will provide a legal opportunity to independently grow the volumes of hemp raw materials they need used for healing or treatment, or to purchase Ukrainian products with great therapeutic potential for absolutely reasonable money.

The concept below is based on the possibilities of using the therapeutic properties of the leaves and inflorescences of technical hemp of therapeutic orientation, already included in the state register of plant varieties suitable for distribution in Ukraine and which, without any processing (including the need for extraction), have enormous therapeutic potential.

In order to figure out what exactly needs to be done, the students of the "Hemp University" were voiced the main postulates of how the process is carried out today:

- a legal entity, in accordance with the provisions of the current regulatory framework, is allowed to cultivate, transport, store, use, purchase, sell, and also destroy industrial hemp plants if the amount of controlled tetrahydrocannabinol in their dried straw does not exceed 0.08% (for this the moment of registration of a legal entity does not take a significant amount of time and does not require any significant material costs);

- industrial crops of technical hemp can be cultivated without any restrictions throughout the country, taking into account the presence of the necessary package of permits (i.e., having received the necessary documents, the person who issued it can grow hemp plants, for example, on his personal plot);

- based on the written response of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine addressed to the Association "Ukrainian technical hemp" "Restrictions on the use of any parts of hemp plants containing small amounts of narcotic substances, or requirements for the destruction of residues after cleaning the seeds of these plants, the current regulatory legal acts concerning the turnover of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors is not provided for. "

Those. at the moment, there is a legal mechanism for working with technical hemp of a therapeutic orientation and national varieties with enormous therapeutic potential are registered in the country. Leaves and inflorescences can be used for personal purposes or feed them to domestic animals - meat, eggs, milk of which is used as nutraceuticals (food products containing the therapeutic elements of the plant). Due to a number of factors, at the moment, it is quite problematic to store the harvest of leaves and inflorescences with enormous therapeutic potential and do not carry any social danger, to implement it, as well as to make final products with high added value from the above raw materials, since even a trace amount of tetrahydrocannabinol will be considered by law enforcement authorities as a basis for initiating criminal proceedings.

Issues that need to be implemented in order to simplify the citizens of Ukraine legal access to the therapeutic properties of non-pharmacological preparations made on the basis of the medicinal properties of hemp (the cost of a patent for the manufacture of which reaches 600-1500%), but directly to therapeutically active elements, contained in significant quantities in the hemp plant itself:

- regulation of the possibility of cultivating technical hemp not only by legal entities, but also by individuals;

- Abolition of archaic norms requiring daily destruction of residues after processing hemp stalks, which law enforcement officers “decode” as flowers and leaves of a plant - at the moment, the corresponding changes to the by-laws have been initiated by the Association “Ukrainian Technical Hemp”;

- the lack of regulation of legal export across the customs border of Ukraine of leaves and inflorescences of technical hemp of a therapeutic orientation predetermines the need to regulate this issue at the level of a departmental normative legal act;

- the lack of regulation in the use of leaves and inflorescences of therapeutic hemp as a food product, raw material for the manufacture of cosmetic preparations, biologically active / food / feed additives predetermines the need for the preparation and adoption of an interdepartmental normative legal act introducing this type of activity into the legal legal field of our country.

Based on all of the above, the following postulates can be formulated, which formed the basis of the developed concept of the most effective amendments to the current legislation of the country:

- in Ukraine, a number of therapeutic varieties of technical hemp are registered and are actively being introduced to the market, the leaves and inflorescences of which have enormous therapeutic potential (examples of use for recovery and treatment were shown to the audience in the presentation “Possibilities of using the medicinal properties of therapeutic hemp”);

- there is a legal mechanism in the country for the cultivation, transportation, storage, use, acquisition, sale, and also destruction of therapeutic hemp plants;

- the current legislation does not prohibit at least the use of flowers or leaves of therapeutic hemp for personal purposes or feeding them to pets;

- in order to launch mechanisms for the legal use of flowers or leaves of technical hemp of therapeutic orientation used for industrial purposes in 2021, it is only necessary to regulate this type of activity, first of all, at the level of departmental regulatory legal acts.