Canamedics: first Catalan company to grow marijuana for medical purposes
Every week in Catalonia there is news of police dismantling illegal marihuana plantations with different weights of product seized. Since the pandemic, Catalonia has been Spain’s top cannabis production site, and one of the biggest in Europe.
This high production is, in part, a consequence of the high demand for this substance. According to a 2023 report by the European Union Drugs Agency, cannabis continues to be the most consumed illegal drug in Europe, with Spain being the country with the highest consumption in the EU.
But amidst the police seizures and arrests, there is one company in Catalonia that has the license to legally grow cannabis for medicinal purposes; Canamedics, based in Manresa, inland of Barcelona.
The pharmaceutical use of cannabis may come as news to some, but doctors and scientists have been collaborating for years on the development of new therapies using this plant.
Luis Comas co-founded the company with his brother when their uncle was left paraplegic following an accident. “Some of the treatments he underwent for his chronic pain involved opioids, which can have really strong side effects,” Luis tells Catalan News.
“After that problem in our family we started to look for alternative aids to this pain. And we saw that cannabis was an option, but it was not developed in Europe at the time,” he adds.
Some months after their first research, the market of pharmaceutical cannabis started to open in Europe in places like Germany, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom, among others.
After a lot of research, these two former lawyers decided to create their own company, Canamedics, and delve into the challenges and opportunities that this new pharmaceutical product offered.
“Once we were compliant with the requirements, we got the EU GMP certificate that allowed us to create pharmaceutical products of cannabis and deliver them to those countries that allow the prescription,” Luis mentions.
Canamedics does not sell cannabis buds in Spain as its use in the medical field is not currently allowed, but that might change with future laws.
But what does this Catalan company actually produce?
“We produce unirradiated inner medical cannabis flowers. We basically produce the buds, the cannabis buds, but in pharmaceutical conditions,” Luis clarifies.
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