What does the process of obtaining a prescription for medical marijuana in Poland look like?

Medical marijuana has been legally available on prescription in Poland since November 1, 2017, but the procedure looks different than most patients imagine. There is no closed list of diseases. There is no separate certificate that a doctor must obtain. There is also no reimbursement. However, there is a requirement that came into effect on November 7, 2024, which changed the starting point of the entire process: a prescription for a substance from the list of narcotic drugs can only be issued after a personal examination of the patient, and teleconsultation is no longer sufficient except for one exception. Below, we guide you through the procedure step by step, from gathering documentation to fulfilling the prescription at the pharmacy with permission, and show where the regulations set a hard limit and where they leave the decision to the doctor.

KEY INFORMATION
• Medical marijuana has been legal in Poland since November 1, 2017, under the Act of July 7, 2017 (Journal of Laws 2017 item 1458), which added Article 33a to the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction.
• From November 7, 2024, a prescription for a preparation containing a narcotic substance of group I-N or II-N is issued after a prior personal examination of the patient. The exception applies to the primary healthcare physician who continues the treatment started under the contract with the NFZ (Journal of Laws 2024 item 1600).
• Any doctor authorized to issue prescriptions for narcotic substances can issue an Rpw prescription, regardless of specialization.
• Non-fibrous hemp is a pharmaceutical raw material for preparing prescription drugs and requires permission from the President of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products.
• Hemp flower is not reimbursed, so the patient covers the entire pharmacy price.
• The National Academies report (NASEM, 2017) considered the evidence decisive or significant in three indications: chronic pain in adults, nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy, and spasticity in multiple sclerosis.

What does the procedure for obtaining a prescription for medical marijuana look like?

The procedure consists of five stages: gathering documentation, personal examination and assessment of indications, issuing the Rpw prescription, fulfillment at a pharmacy handling narcotic substances, and follow-up visits. None of these steps is a formality, but only the second has a solid basis in regulations of the rank of a regulation.

The first stage is entirely up to the patient, and they usually decide the pace of the rest. The doctor assesses whether the condition has proven resistant to previous treatment, and this can only be proven with documents: descriptions of previous therapies, discharge summaries, a list of medications taken along with dosages. For chronic pain, a symptom diary kept for several weeks before the visit helps, as it shows the variability of symptoms better than a one-time report.

The time to go through the entire process then depends on two things independent of the patient: the date of the in-person visit and the availability of a specific raw material in wholesalers. Therapy starts with the lowest dose and is gradually increased, so the first prescription is rarely the final one. A detailed version of this process, along with a list of documents, is described in our guide for those who are just becoming patients of medical marijuana.

Since when has medical marijuana been legal in Poland?

Since November 1, 2017. On that day, the Act of July 7, 2017, amending the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction and the Act on Drug Reimbursement (Journal of Laws 2017 item 1458) came into force, which added Article 33a to the 2005 Act. The act has a valid status in the ELI register.

The structure adopted by the legislator is atypical and explains most of the subsequent problems faced by patients. Non-fibrous hemp and pharmaceutical extracts and tinctures from such hemp have not been approved as ready-made drugs. They have become pharmaceutical raw materials intended for the preparation of prescription drugs, and the introduction of such raw materials into circulation requires permission from the President of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Medical Devices, and Biocidal Products. The permission is issued for five years, through an administrative decision, and the procedure for submitting an application is regulated by Article 33b of the same act.

From the patient’s perspective, this means that the pharmacy does not issue a package from the shelf but prepares a prescription drug from raw material approved by a separate decision. This creates a dependency on the availability of individual permits and supplies, rather than on demand. This also explains the gap between the legalization itself and the actual turnover: the regulation was in force, but before the first raw material obtained permission and reached wholesalers, pharmacies had nothing to prepare the drug from. The current state of the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction was announced in a consolidated text (Journal of Laws 2023 item 1939), which also remains valid in the ELI register.

What changed on November 7, 2024, in issuing Rpw prescriptions?

From November 7, 2024, a prescription for a preparation containing a narcotic substance of group I-N or II-N or a psychotropic substance of group II-P, III-P, or IV-P is issued after a prior personal examination of the patient by the person issuing the prescription. The change was introduced by the regulation of the Minister of Health of October 29, 2024 (Journal of Laws 2024 item 1600), announced on October 30 and effective seven days after its announcement.

The regulation provides for one exception. The requirement for a personal examination does not apply to a doctor providing services under a contract for the provision of primary healthcare services if they continue treatment with the same preparation. The exception thus applies to continuation, not the initiation of therapy, and is tied to a specific type of contract with the National Health Fund. A private clinic doctor, even if continuing treatment, does not benefit from this exemption.

The practical effect is simple, and many guides have not noted it. The first Rpw prescription for hemp flower cannot today be created solely based on a teleconsultation, even if the patient sends a complete set of documentation. The visit can be prepared remotely, descriptions of tests can be sent, and a date can be set, but the examination must take place in person. If you are reading an older article that presents teleconsultation as a legitimate path to the first prescription, it describes the state before November 2024. The consolidated text of the regulation, in which this change is already included, was announced in Journal of Laws 2025 item 1678. The earlier consolidated text from March 2024 expired on December 1, 2025, so referring to it is misleading.

In which indications does the doctor resort to cannabinoids?

Polish regulations do not contain a closed list of indications. The decision is made by the doctor based on clinical assessment and available evidence, which is very unevenly distributed. Two major reviews from 2015 and 2017 set the reference point today, and it is worth reading them together, as they answer different questions.

The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM, 2017) organizes the evidence on a five-point scale. The highest level is decisive evidence, followed by significant, moderate, limited, and finally insufficient. The names of the levels are not embellishments, as they indicate how many high-quality studies support a given conclusion. The authors rated three indications the highest: chronic pain in adults, spasticity in multiple sclerosis, and nausea with vomiting after chemotherapy. For sleep disorders secondary to other diseases, the evidence was deemed moderate. For anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, it was classified as limited. The same was true for epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases.

The meta-analysis by Whiting et al. in JAMA (Whiting et al., 2015) included 79 randomized studies and 6462 participants, of which only four were rated as having low risk of systematic error. This same work noted an increased risk of short-term adverse effects, including severe ones. The most common included dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, drowsiness, vomiting, disorientation, and hallucinations. The statement that sometimes circulates in articles, claiming that the review showed a low risk of serious adverse effects, reverses the authors’ conclusion.

Who can issue an Rpw prescription for medical marijuana?

Any doctor authorized to issue prescriptions for narcotic and psychotropic substances, regardless of specialization. Neurologists, oncologists, anesthesiologists, psychiatrists, palliative care physicians, and family doctors have the same formal rights in this regard.

There is one requirement: an active medical license and access to the e-prescription system. There is no additional “medical marijuana” certificate required by regulations, and no state institution issues such a document. If a clinic refers to its own certificate as an authorization, it describes internal training or a commercial course, not a title provided by law. This distinction can be significant when a patient compares offers and tries to assess what they are paying for.

Practice deviates from rights. A large number of primary care doctors do not conduct cannabis therapy independently and refer the patient to a specialist, as the selection of strain, dosage, and scheme requires experience that the mere right to issue a prescription does not provide. However, after starting treatment with a specialist, the primary care doctor can continue it, and this situation falls within the exception to personal examination described above. For the patient, this can be the cheapest part of the entire process, as a visit under the contract with the Fund does not incur a cost, and a prescription for continuation does not require re-diagnosis. The condition is a stable dose and a doctor willing to take over the management.

What is the difference between an Rpw prescription and a regular prescription?

An Rpw prescription is used to prescribe preparations containing narcotic and psychotropic substances under special supervision, and its issuance is subject to additional formal requirements. The most characteristic of these is the obligation to state the quantity of the substance additionally in words, alongside the numerical record. This safeguard has a simple origin: it makes it difficult to add a digit after the prescription has been issued.

The prescription is now in electronic form. The patient receives a four-digit code, which, along with their PESEL number, they use to fulfill it at the pharmacy, and the informational printout contains the dosage scheme established by the doctor. The fulfillment period for prescriptions for narcotic substances is shorter than for regular prescriptions, and after its expiration, a new visit is needed. Delaying the purchase carries a real risk, especially when the patient is waiting for the delivery of a specific raw material.

Such prescriptions can only be fulfilled by pharmacies that handle narcotic substances of groups I-N and II-N. This is not a standard authorization for every general pharmacy, so before the first purchase, it is worth calling to confirm two things at once: the authorization itself and the availability of the prescribed raw material. Information about pharmacies is provided by provincial pharmaceutical inspectorates. Since the pharmacy prepares a prescription drug, not issuing a ready-made package, preparation takes some time and rarely happens immediately.

How to find a doctor conducting cannabis therapy?

Two paths make sense: a specialist clinic corresponding to the underlying disease and a clinic dealing with cannabinoid therapy. Following the change in November 2024, the first visit must be in person, so the distance from the place of residence is no longer a matter of convenience but a condition for starting treatment.

When choosing a clinic, four questions are useful. How many years has the doctor been conducting cannabinoid therapies and in which indications? Is the pricing for the first visit and follow-up visit provided before scheduling? Does the facility conduct monitoring, meaning does someone answer the phone between visits? Is there a procedure in case of a lack of raw material in the pharmacy? Answers to these questions say more about the quality of care than the declared specialization.

One clear warning signal is the promise of a prescription before examination. A facility that promises to issue a prescription with a guarantee or after just a teleconsultation describes something that the regulation does not allow today when starting therapy. An assessment of indications that ends with a predetermined outcome is not an assessment. A refusal can also be justified, as the doctor is responsible for balancing benefits and risks, and contraindications include, among others, a history of psychotic disorders and pregnancy. The patient can then request a written justification or consult another doctor, and this is a normal, not an appeal, path.

How much does therapy with medical marijuana cost?

The patient covers the entire pharmacy price, as hemp flower and extracts from non-fibrous hemp are not on the list of reimbursed drugs. Reimbursement only covers selected ready-made medicinal products containing cannabinoids, approved for narrowly defined indications, and not raw material intended for compounding.

The total cost consists of three items: medical visits, the raw material itself, and equipment if the therapy involves vaporization. Pharmacy prices vary and change faster than any other item, so we do not provide a rate per gram; a number given once would become outdated before the reader’s first visit. We maintain a current comparison separately in the text about prices of medical marijuana in pharmacies, and that is where the update goes.

The cost can be reduced in two ways that do not require a therapeutic compromise. The first is to transfer the continuation to a primary care doctor after stabilizing the dose, which eliminates some paid visits and falls within the exception to personal examination described above. The second is to compare offers from several authorized pharmacies before the prescription is fulfilled, as differences can be noticeable, and the electronic prescription is not tied to a specific address. It is worth counting the cost on a monthly scale, not a single purchase, as only then can one see how much the daily dose established by the doctor weighs.

What strains are available in Polish pharmacies?

Raw material from several foreign producers, mainly from Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany, with varying THC and CBD content, reaches Polish pharmacies. The list of approved items changes with the permits from the President of the Office for Registration and with deliveries, so any enumeration of it becomes outdated quickly, and it is not worth planning therapy under a specific trade name.

For the patient, the cannabinoid profile is more important than the brand, as it determines dosing and tolerance. Raw materials with high THC content and trace CBD are dosed differently than raw materials close to a one-to-one ratio, and strains with a predominance of CBD are used in even different situations. The doctor selects the profile according to the indication and the patient’s previous experiences, not the popularity of the producer. Changing the strain during therapy usually means returning to a lower dose for a few days, as the reaction can be different even with a similar composition.

Experienced doctors write a backup variant on the prescription, for example, allowing raw material with a similar profile. This protects the patient from a break in therapy when a specific item disappears from wholesalers and saves one visit. We maintain a current overview of what can actually be purchased in a separate text about strains of medical marijuana available in Poland.

What to do if the medication is out of stock at the pharmacy?

Supply interruptions are a recurring phenomenon in this segment, as the raw material comes from imports, and each item depends on a separate permit and a separate supply chain. The first move is to ask the pharmacy about the date of the next delivery and the possibility of reserving from an already issued prescription.

If the interruption drags on, the second step is to contact pharmacies with authorization in the area, as availability can be very local and varies even within the same city. The electronic prescription is not tied to a pharmacy, so the patient can fulfill it where the raw material is, as long as it is within the validity period. This period can be practically more important than availability itself, as after its expiration, the procedure starts anew.

The third step is up to the doctor. They can issue a new prescription for raw material with a similar profile, which often proves faster than waiting for delivery. Therefore, when choosing a clinic, the question about contact between visits weighs heavily: with stable therapy conducted by a primary care doctor, a change can be possible without another visit to a specialist. It is advisable to store a backup in its original packaging, at room temperature and without light access, as terpenes evaporate faster than cannabinoids, and they are responsible for some of the differences between strains.

Is it possible to transport medical marijuana across the border?

Transport is only possible with the appropriate documents and only to certain countries. Within the Schengen area, a certificate issued under Article 75 of the Executive Convention to the Schengen Agreement serves this purpose, confirming that the patient is transporting the medication for their own medical needs. The certificate is issued for a specified time and for a specified amount, according to the prescribed dosage.

Outside the Schengen area, each country has its own regulations, and some treat possession of THC preparations as a crime regardless of the prescription. This applies to several Asian countries and the Middle East, where penalties can be lengthy. In the United States, regulations vary by state, and at the federal level, marijuana remains illegal, which is significant at airports and when crossing state borders.

The consequences of transport without documents can be serious, as legally it is not a customs matter but the transport of a narcotic substance. Before any trip, it is wise to confirm the requirements with the diplomatic mission of the destination country and to apply for a certificate in advance, as its issuance takes time, and during the holiday season, it can take longer than usual. If therapy allows for a few days’ break, some patients choose it instead of formalities; however, the decision to interrupt medication is made by the attending physician, not the patient.

Is it allowed to drive a car after using medical marijuana?

No. A legal prescription does not exempt from responsibility for driving under the influence of a narcotic substance, and Polish regulations do not provide for any exceptions or tolerance thresholds for patients. Presenting an Rpw prescription during a traffic stop changes nothing.

The distinction that is sometimes confused concerns the detection time and the time of action. THC can be detectable long after the psychoactive effects have subsided, especially with daily therapy, when the substance accumulates in fatty tissue. Therefore, the sense of fitness is not a reliable indicator: a patient who feels well and objectively functions well may still have a positive test result. The reverse situation can also occur, as the presence of the substance does not have to indicate impaired reaction, but the law does not provide for gradation here.

The practical conclusion for those starting therapy is one: planning transport should be part of treatment planning, on par with dosage. This also applies to the first days after changing the dose or strain, when the body’s reaction is least predictable. Preparations containing only cannabidiol are a different matter in this regard, as cannabidiol has no psychoactive properties and has not been subject to international control, as confirmed by the World Health Organization expert committee (WHO ECDD, 2018). However, hemp flower contains measurable amounts of THC even when it is predominantly cannabidiol.

Does CBD without a prescription complement therapy conducted on prescription?

Products with cannabidiol are available without a prescription, and some patients use them alongside therapy conducted by a doctor. The World Health Organization expert committee (WHO ECDD, 2018) recommended that pure cannabidiol not be subject to international control, as no potential for abuse or addiction has been found.

However, combining requires a conversation with the attending physician, not a unilateral decision. Cannabidiol affects the activity of cytochrome P450 enzymes, through which a significant portion of medications is metabolized, so adding it to therapy changes the conditions under which the dose was selected. Patients taking opioids, benzodiazepines, or antiepileptic drugs require particular caution. The same caution applies in the reverse direction: discontinuing a cannabidiol product also changes these conditions, so it is not a neutral step.

The distinction also has a formal dimension, which is easy to forget. A cannabidiol product purchased in a store is not a medicine and does not replace therapy conducted on prescription, even if it contains the same cannabinoid as the pharmacy raw material. It is also not subject to the same quality requirements, so the certificate of analysis from the manufacturer carries different weight than with a prescription drug. If you are looking for such products, you can find them in the category of hemp oils, but the decision to add them to treatment should be left to the attending physician.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can any doctor issue a prescription Rpw for medical marijuana?

Yes. An active medical license and access to the e-prescription system are sufficient, and specialization does not have formal significance. Regulations do not provide for an additional certificate authorizing cannabis therapy. In practice, patients go to experienced doctors, as the selection of dosage and strain requires skill.

Can a prescription for medical marijuana be obtained after a teleconsultation?

No when starting treatment. From November 7, 2024, a prescription for a substance from the list of narcotic drugs is issued after a personal examination of the patient. The exception only applies to the primary healthcare physician who continues the treatment started under the contract with the National Health Fund.

Does the NFZ reimburse hemp flower?

No. Hemp flower and extracts from non-fibrous hemp are not on the list of reimbursed drugs, so the patient covers the full pharmacy price. Reimbursement only covers selected ready-made medicinal products containing cannabinoids, approved for narrowly defined indications and issued under different rules.

Is medical marijuana issued by every pharmacy?

No. Rpw prescriptions are only fulfilled by pharmacies that handle narcotic drugs of groups I-N and II-N, and such authorization is held by a minority of facilities. Information is provided by provincial pharmaceutical inspectorates. It is worth calling ahead to confirm both the pharmacy’s authorization and the availability of the prescribed raw material.

In which indications is the evidence strongest?

The National Academies report from 2017 considered the evidence decisive or significant in three indications: chronic pain in adults, nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy, and spasticity in multiple sclerosis. In other areas, including anxiety and epilepsy, the evidence was deemed limited or insufficient.

Is it allowed to drive a car after using medical marijuana?

No. A prescription does not exempt from responsibility for driving under the influence of a narcotic substance, and regulations do not provide for any tolerance threshold for patients. THC can be detectable long after the perceptible effects have subsided, so well-being is not a reliable indicator of driving ability.

Can cannabis be grown for personal medical use?

No. Polish law does not allow patients to grow cannabis for medical purposes. Non-fibrous hemp is a pharmaceutical raw material, the introduction of which into circulation requires permission from the President of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products. Cultivation outside this procedure remains a prohibited act.

This article is for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. The legal status described in the article is valid as of the date of publication: regulations regarding cannabis may change. Before making a decision, consult a lawyer or current legal acts.

Author: Michał Waluk · Published: 2026-05-11 · Updated: 2026-08-10