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HEALTH

Pharmacies in Spain will be able to sell medical marijuana by the end of 2022

Spain's Medicines Agency will soon set out the conditions for pharmacies to be able to dispense cannabis with THC - the psychoactive component that makes you feel ‘high’ - when prescribed for therapeutic purposes.

Published: 22 June 2022 10:53 CEST
SPAIN-HEALTH-MARIJUANA
The Spanish government still wants to prevent the use of cannabis extracts or preparations from being "confused with an invocation of the general use of cannabis by the population”. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

The move was agreed upon by the Spanish Congress of Deputies on Tuesday, but must still be approved by Spain’s Health Commission, which is likely to be as soon as this Thursday, June 23rd.  

Products extracted from cannabis will be sold in Spanish pharmacies in order to help alleviate symptoms associated with diseases such as multiple sclerosis, some forms of epilepsy, the side effects of chemotherapy, cancer, chronic pain and endometriosis.

The Spanish Observatory of Medicinal Cannabis (OECM) calculates that up to 300,000 people who could use cannabis for therapeutic purposes will benefit. 

The cannabis formulas will be prescribed exclusively by health professionals “in a context free of potential conflicts of interest”, states the official text, and will preferably be prescribed by specialists.

A centralised registry of the patients who will use it will be created to ensure it’s only purchased by those who need it. 

The text also emphasises that it will be necessary to prevent the supply of cannabis for therapeutic uses from leading to “greater availability and consumption” outside of the context of health benefits.

The text goes on to say it is “absolutely necessary” to prevent the use of cannabis extracts or preparations from being “confused with an invocation of the general use of cannabis by the population”.

To stop this from happening, the Spanish Medicines Agency will prepare a yearly report on the options available, patients, services and volumes of products dispensed.

Although standardised cannabis extracts will be guaranteed, the agreement leaves the door open for the use of the cannabis flower too, to develop “experimental medicinal projects”. Many patients use the flower as a “rescue” medicine during episodes of crisis.

“Many times, the high THC composition of this is too high for a patient. From now on, it will be possible to regulate the amount of THC and make a more personalised adjustment”, explains Carlos Goicoechea, vice president of the Spanish Pain Society and professor of Pharmacology at the Rey Juan Carlos University.

Up until now, only two drugs based on the cannabis plant have been marketed in Spain: Sativex, made up of two extracts of cannabis sativa (THC and CBD), to treat muscle spasticity and pain in multiple sclerosis patients, and Epidiolex (CBD extracted from plants, in oil, for epilepsy associated with Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes).  

The new plan will mean patients who are unable to take these two drugs because of the high dosage will now be able to take specific doses created by the pharmacies.

The president of the General Council of Official Colleges of Pharmacists (CGCOF), Jesús Aguilar, claimed that dispensing the drug through the network of pharmacies reconciles the most demanding criteria of “public health, patient safety, health education and equal access”.

Currently, CBD products are not illegal in Spain provided that they contain less than 0.2 percent of THC, the psychoactive component in weed that makes you feel ‘high’.

READ ALSO: What’s the law on cannabis in Spain?

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WORKING IN SPAIN

Right to disconnect: Is it legal for Spanish bosses to contact workers out-of-hours?

The increasingly online world means that we can work remotely and call colleagues from across the globe, but it can also make us constantly contactable. So can bosses in Spain contact you out of hours?

Published: 12 September 2024 13:15 CEST
Right to disconnect: Is it legal for Spanish bosses to contact workers out-of-hours?

In the increasingly online world of teletrabajo and remote working in 2024, technology means that we can work with colleagues on the other side of the world and hold online meetings across the continents.

However, there are also some downsides. Things like burnout, screen fatigue and generally just being constantly contactable are new workplace issues that many countries are trying to come to terms with.

In Spain el derecho a la desconexión digital (the right to digital disconnection) is an idea that’s been gaining ground among trade unions and the more left-wing members of Spain’s coalition government.

This comes amid wider efforts to improve workplace rights such as reducing the working week to 37.5 hours. 

READ ALSO: Spain set to slash work week to 37.5 hours

At a recent press conference, the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, stressed the importance of digital disconnection. “There’s no point in reducing the working day if your boss can call you at midnight or send you an email at 5 a.m,’ he said. 

For the reduction of the working week to be effective, he added, it must respect set working hours and ensure that employees are not bothered outside their working hours.

Is it illegal for Spanish bosses to contact workers out-of-hours?

Generally speaking, yes. Or it is in theory, at least. Though there’s not a specific digital disconnection law yet, the right to digital disconnection is already regulated in Spain via various pieces of pre-existing law on workplace rights and data protection.

Article 20 of the Workers’ Statute and Article 88 of Organic Law 3/2018 on Data Protection and Guarantees of Digital Rights both establish legal guarantees that workers can disconnect outside the legally or habitually established working time, protecting their rest time, leave, holidays and personal privacy.

In theory, companies are obliged to create an internal policy defining how this right will be exercised and to train staff on the reasonable use of technology (more on that below).

This is key: companies should come up with a policy or set of rules regarding digital disconnection and out of hours contact. They may also be defined in your sectoral collective bargaining agreement, depending on your type of work.

If there aren’t defined standards, bosses may be able to skirt around the rules.

Whether or not the pushier bosses and high-stress industries respect these rules anyway, however, even if they did exist, is another matter altogether. That’s why, despite the existing regulation, trade unions have reported numerous breaches of labour regulations based on digital issues and called for the legislation to go further. 

READ ALSO: What are my rights if I work extra hours in Spain?

The UGT, one of Spain’s major unions, wants stricter fines and punishments for companies that don’t respect their employees’ right to digital disconnection, as well as it to be included in the Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks, something that would bring the online workplace into line with pre-existing legislation.

Spain’s Ministry of Labour has proposed increasing penalties, with fines ranging from €1,000 to €10,000 depending on the seriousness of the offence. 

It’s also proposed modifying pre-existing rules to create offences related to disrupting the enjoyment of minimum daily and weekly rest periods, annual leave, maximum working hours, breaks during the working day, as well as the regulation of night work and shift work.

The law

So, what does the law actually say? This new right is most specifically outlined Article 88 of the Organic Law on Personal Data Protection and Guarantee of Digital Rights:

Article 88.1: Public workers and employees shall have the right to digital disconnection in order to guarantee, outside the legally or conventionally established working time, respect for their rest time, leave and holidays, as well as their personal and family privacy.

This includes the broad right to digital disconnection, but also the right to privacy and use of digital devices in the workplace; the right to privacy from the use of video surveillance and sound recording devices in the workplace; the right to privacy from the use of geolocation systems; and, finally, employees have the right not to answer calls or emails about work-related issues outside working hours.

Article 88.3 states that employers should create internal policies to ensure this happens: 

“The employer, after hearing the workers’ representatives, shall draw up an internal policy for workers, including those in managerial positions, defining the procedures for exercising the right to disconnection and training and awareness-raising measures for staff on the reasonable use of technological tools in order to avoid the risk of computer fatigue.”

So, legally speaking, it is illegal for Spanish bosses to contact workers out-of-hours if it breaks the legislation, sectoral collective bargaining agreements, or private arrangements made on a company level.

Whether or not most bosses respect this, however, is an entirely different matter. 

READ ALSO: Spain’s Valencia begins four-day work week trial

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