A new Faroese party campaigns for the right to grow and use cannabis

A new Faroese party announced in July 2018 that it wanted people to be able to grow and use cannabis, with medical access a particular priority.^[1] Its founder, Hallur Hjalgrímsson Djurhuus, sought the signatures needed to take that campaign into an election.^[1]

One issue brought the party together

The group called itself Framtakið fyri rættinum at velja kannabis, translated by the public broadcaster as the campaign for the right to choose cannabis.^[1] Djurhuus argued for personal choice over growing and using the plant and for free access for people who needed it medically.^[1]

The party proposed staying neutral on other political questions.^[1] Members could hold different positions on subjects unrelated to cannabis, while supporting legalisation and research into its effects.^[1]

At its launch, Djurhuus said he had collected about 250 of the 800 signatures required to contest an election.^[1]

Medicines were available, but flower was excluded

The campaign entered a debate in which cannabis treatment already existed in a narrower form.^[2] In March 2018, the public broadcaster reported that Faroese GPs could prescribe eleven cannabis-containing medicinal products, following guidance shared with Denmark.^[2]

Cannabis flowers and buds available under Denmark’s new trial scheme were still excluded from Faroese approval at that point.^[2] The Central Party had proposed opening a similar trial in the islands.^[2]

The new campaign’s call for people to grow and use cannabis therefore went beyond the existing prescription options.^[1][2]

The founders submitted their signatures

By February 2019, the founders had handed 800 signatures to the Ministry of the Interior.^[3] Djurhuus described relief after months of collecting support and repeated the group’s objective of legal access and personal cultivation.^[3]

The broadcaster also named Arnfinn á Birtuni as a co-founder and reported Hjalmar Zachariassen’s candidacy.^[3]

Medical reform followed its own route

In April 2019, MP Jenis á Rana returned to parliament with a proposal for access to Denmark’s medical trial, after an earlier rejection.^[4] Health minister Sirið Stenberg offered to discuss adding cannabis products to the medicines list through an administrative route.^[4]

The Chief Medical Officer confirms that the Faroese medical trial began that April.^[5] The campaign and the prescribing debate were distinct parts of the widening argument over cannabis in the Faroe Islands.^[1][4]