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South Korea Legalizes Medical Cannabis

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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]O[/dropcap]fficials from The Republic of Korea made revisions to the drug policy and legalized non-psychoactive medical cannabis on Nov. 23, making it the first country in East Asia to do so. Under the new changes, South Korea will allow for the import of cannabidiol (CBD), which will be overseen by the Korea Orphan Drug Center.

Doctors will be allowed to prescribe CBD oil for a variety of illnesses. According to South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, patients will be approved on a case-by-case basis. Smoking cannabis, unfortunately, will remain illegal, and violations are still punishable by up to five years in prison.

It’s a strange move, considering that just last August, the Korea Customs Service issued a warning to its citizens to avoid smoking cannabis in Canada ahead of its first day of legal cannabis sales. Citizens face punishment for smoking cannabis even if they smoke it in a legal country.

Democratic Party Rep. Shin Chang-hyun was the amendment’s sponsor, and he introduced the changes to South Korea’s National Drug Control Law last January. “The current law strictly forbids the sale and purchase of cannabis, which led to a recent case of a mother being arrested and sentenced in court for buying cannabis oil from overseas to treat her son with brain cancer,” Rep. Shin said on Nov. 26. Korea’s Democratic Party seized control of the country’s National Assembly and used non-psychoactive medical cannabis as a selling point.

The concept of medical cannabis is new in South Korea. Only recently, Korean media has latched onto the trend of using cannabis oil to treat illnesses. A number of Korean citizens faced hard time for “smuggling” CBD oil into the country. South Koreans have abused crystal meth as an illegal drug, and it has been favored in the country for a long time. Any illegal drugs in South Korea are considered taboo.

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