Ukraine officials have announced that the country’s first approved medical cannabis product has officially been registered and is expected to be available in pharmacies early this year.

Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanyshyna and the Patients of Ukraine Charitable Foundation confirmed the approval on Wednesday.

The oral cannabis drops, developed in Spain, are the first in a series of products that are anticipated to be registered. Officials last year also approved cannabis capsules, dental pastes and gels that will need to go through the registration process as well.

“A year has passed since Ukraine adopted a law on the legalization of medical cannabis. During this time, the Ukrainian system has been prepared at the legislative level for the legalization of medical drugs,” Stefanyshyna said, adding that “the first medicines will soon appear in pharmacies.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the medical cannabis legislation into law last February. The legal change officially took effect this past summer, but there hasn’t been access to marijuana products yet as the government has worked on the approvals and registrations.

Officials in August moved to clarify the scope of the new policy.

“Cannabis, its resin, extracts and tinctures are excluded from the list of particularly dangerous substances,” the Ministry of Health said in an announcement at the time. “Previously, their circulation was prohibited—now it is allowed, but with certain restrictions.”

The law legalized medical cannabis for patients with severe illnesses and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from the nation’s ongoing conflict with Russia, which launched an invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.

While the text of the legislation as introduced explicitly listed only cancer and war-related PTSD as qualifying conditions, the chair of the health committee said in July that lawmakers were hearing daily from patients with other illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.

Lawmakers approved the medical cannabis legislation in late 2023, but the opposition Batkivshchyna party used a procedural tactic to block it by forcing consideration of a resolution to repeal the measure. That resolution failed last January, clearing its path to enactment.

Opponents previously tried to derail the marijuana bill by filing hundreds of what critics called “spam” amendments, but that attempt similarly failed, with the measure ultimately passing with 248 votes.

The Agrarian Policy Ministry will hold regulatory responsibilities over cannabis cultivation and processing operations. The National Police and State Agency on Medicines will also hold oversight and enforcement authorities related to the distribution of the medicine.

“We have done a lot of work to ensure that the first manufacturer registers its products in Ukraine as soon as possible,” Hanna Glushchenko, head of international partnerships at the Ukrainian Medical Cannabis Association, said in a press release on Wednesday. “Since this milestone has been reached, we are currently focusing on training Ukrainian doctors to treat with medical cannabis.”

Zelensky, for his part, voiced support for medical marijuana legalization in mid-2023, stating in an address to the parliament that “all the world’s best practices, all the most effective policies, all the solutions, no matter how difficult or unusual they may seem to us, must be applied in Ukraine so that Ukrainians, all our citizens, do not have to endure the pain, stress and trauma of war.”

“In particular, we must finally fairly legalize cannabis-based medicines for all those who need them, with appropriate scientific research and controlled Ukrainian production,” he said.

During his presidential campaign, Zelensky also voiced support for medical cannabis legalization, saying in 2019 that he feels it would be “normal” to allow people to access cannabis “droplets,” which is possibly a reference to marijuana tinctures.

The policy change puts Ukraine is stark contrast to its long-time aggressor Russia, which has taken a particularly strong stance against reforming cannabis policy at the international level through the United Nations. The country has condemned Canada for legalizing marijuana nationwide, for example.

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Photo courtesy of Kimzy Nanney.