Increasing numbers of Belgian teenagers are seeking help for cannabis use, De Standaard reported on Monday.

After France, Belgium also gives the green light to the commercialisation of Sativex. An oral spray containing cannabis as ingredient and addressed mainly to people with multiple sclerosis.

The Minister of Health, Maggie De Block, has signed the royal decree which allows the distribution of the drug in pharmacies since the end of June.

The distribution is, of course, subjected to medical prescription.

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BRUSSELS, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Medical marijuana is to go on sale in Belgium as from early July, De Morgen reported on Friday.

A royal decree legalising the sale of cannabis for pain alleviation was signed by Health Minister Maggie De Block on Thursday.

Cannabis Social Clubs are the solution, not the problem.

HASSELT, BELGIUM – On Thursday May 28th, the appeal in the case against Mambo Social Club will be held in the court of Antwerp. Mambo is the second Cannabis Social Club in Belgium and was sentenced by the Court of First Instance last year, for cultivation and possession of cannabis. President and founder of Mambo Social Club, Michel Degens, expects a positive outcome: “Cannabis Social Clubs offer a safe alternative to adult consumers who don’t want to buy cannabis on the black market. It’s a non-profit model of cannabis production and distribution that promotes health, safety and responsibility. Cannabis Social Clubs are the solution, not the problem.”

Belgium has an unusual history in terms of drug policy. For decades after prohibition, all drugs were treated similarly harshly. At the turn of the 21st century, cannabis laws were relaxed and personal quantities tolerated. However, a change of government late last year may spell an abrupt end to this tolerant approach.

Legal aspects concerning consumption, possession and cultivation of cannabis

Cannabis possession & consumption

What kind of facility has lighting as intense as that found in an operating room (500-times more than needed for reading), 6-times the air-change rate of a biotech laboratory and 60-times that of a home, and the electric power intensity of a datacenter?

The emergent industry of indoor Cannabis production results in prodigious energy use, costs, and greenhouse-gas pollution. Large-scale industrialized and highly energy-intensive indoor cultivation of Cannabis is driven by criminalization, pursuit of security, and the desire for greater process control and yields. The practice occurs across the United States and in many other countries.

In Europe, the legislation varied from one country to another. And the most stringent laws do not necessarily produce the best effects.

According to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), nearly one in two French smoked cannabis. However, France has one of the toughest laws on drug use, even so-called "soft" drugs. In Europe, laws differ. On one hand the countries that decriminalize, are tolerant, do not condemn. And conversely those which are very severe. Scientific studies are struggling to establish links between the laws in force and the actual consumption of drugs. If consumption is sometimes tolerated in different forms, the sale and cultivation of cannabis are of course mostly misdemeanors.

Countries that tolerate

A generational challenge on the legalisation of cannabis is taking place in Belgium, where young members of almost all political parties have submitted a bill to revise drug policy. They say that so far this has failed. In fact, despite the repressive laws, marijuana is the most widely used illegal psychoactive substance in the country.