Health Minister Azir Aliu announced today that inspections of all medical cannabis production companies have begun. As he said at the press conference, 43 licenses will need to be inspected.

Aliu recalled that a government decision has also been made to appoint members of the commission from among the ministries.

"From today, extraordinary controls begin together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, while this press conference is continuing, colleagues are in the field. 43 licenses for the production of medical cannabis will have to be checked. The day before yesterday, at a government meeting, the decision was made to appoint members of the inter-ministerial commission. A person from the Ministry of Health (MoH) will chair it. It was created in 2017, and we did not find any report on its work, although it is one of the keys to having access to what is happening regarding the production of cannabis for medical purposes," the Minister emphasized.

Aliu emphasized that for now there are two commissions, one composed of the Ministry of Health, which works continuously, and one – between the ministries.

"A commission was created by the Ministry of Health, it has five members - two from the Ministry, one from the Institute for Public Health, one from MALMED and one from the MBPEU, and it is competent for two things - to analyze administrative procedures and to provide approval for licenses. This Commission works continuously and we have information on how many cases have been archived.

The other is between the ministries, with much broader powers, which analyzes policies for this type of process. The inter-ministerial commission is according to the Law on Government and I think it has 13 members. It was created in 2017, it has been active since then, but there is no report, there are no activities that indicate any omissions - systematic or from the infrastructure aspect. Regarding the regulations, there are two, one old and another. Our experts from the Ministry of Health and two university professors are analyzing them. After the analysis, if necessary, we will come up with a procedure for the regulations", emphasized the Minister.

Aliu informed that on Tuesday, at a government meeting, he requested legal changes that would enable the minister in such cases to have the authority to create more than one commission.

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