WARSAW: Nearly 70 percent of Poles favor the legalisation of medical marijuana, according to the first survey of its kind in the central European country published Friday.
It comes after draft legislation on the legalisation of cannabis for medical use was submitted to parliament ahead of a general election slated for the autumn.
A total 68 percent of Poles said they wanted medical marijuana to be legal, according to the survey by the independent PBS agency conducted July 3-5 on a random representative sample of 1,000 adults.
Of those surveyed, 42 percent insisted it be accessible only via a doctor’s prescription, while 26 percent favoured unfettered access for anyone wanting to use it as medicine.
Eighteen percent wanted marijuana in all its forms to remain illegal, while 14 percent said they had no opinion on the matter.
Sixty-eight percent also said that denying patients access to medical marijuana was “cruel” and violated their right to access healthcare, while 70 percent said that since “harmful alcohol” is legal, they saw no reason why medical cannabis should be banned.
While opponents cite studies pointing to marijuana as causing lung cancer or psychosis, advocates contend the plant has a range of medical applications including pain relief and seizure management.
Medical marijuana hit the headlines in Poland earlier this year after a doctor at a leading children’s hospital imported it from the Netherlands to treat a child suffering from life-threatening seizures after conventional treatments failed. The child recovered.
Majority of Poles want legal medical marijuana
Majority of Poles want legal medical marijuana
‘Unofficial’ talks on plastic pollution treaty to begin in Japan
- “Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” Cordano warned after being elected
TOKYO: Delegates from around 20 countries will hold three days of “informal” talks in Japan from Sunday aimed at salvaging efforts toward a landmark global treaty on plastic pollution.
Supposedly final talks in South Korea in 2024 toward an agreement failed, and a renewed effort in Geneva last August likewise collapsed in overtime.
A Japanese Environment Ministry official said that the “informal” closed-door meeting among “working-level officials” through Tuesday was not expected to result in any official announcement.
If we don’t take concerted action, it will get much worse in the coming decades. A treaty is urgently needed.
Julio Cordano, Chile’s chief climate negotiator
“Japan is in a position of pushing for progress on the issue, and so is hosting the meeting,” the official told AFP without wishing to be named.
She added that “little progress” has been made since August, other than the election in early February of Chile’s chief climate negotiator Julio Cordano as chairman.
“Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” Cordano warned after being elected.
“If we don’t take concerted action, it will get much worse in the coming decades. A treaty is urgently needed,” he said.
More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, with half for single-use items.
A large bloc of states wants bold action such as curbing plastic production, while a smaller clutch of oil-producing states wants to focus more narrowly on waste management.
Countries expected to be present in Tokyo include big oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States as well as islands states Antigua and Barbuda and Palau, plus China, India and the European Union.
The UN’s environment chief told AFP in an interview in October that a global treaty remains “totally doable.”
“No one has walked away and said, ‘this is just too hopeless, we’re giving up’,” United Nations Environment Programme executive director Inger Andersen said.
