The story · written by grok-4.7,
Spanish hospitals are about to receive the first cannabis extracts registered for medical use. On 17 October 2026 Curaleaf, the only company to have registered any, said its two preparations would start going to about 50 public and private hospitals and could be in use by the end of the month.[1] A patient cannot buy them from an ordinary pharmacy.[2] A hospital specialist prescribes, and the hospital pharmacy makes up an oral solution.[3][2]
A route that existed only on paper
The October 2025 decree let hospital pharmacies prepare a standardised cannabis formula when a specialist prescribed it, for patients whose authorised medicines had not worked.[2] It was signed on 7 October 2025, published on 9 October and in force the next day.[2] The medicines agency then had to publish a formulary monograph on how the solution is made and when it may be used.[2]
An oily solution, made to order
The monograph has the pharmacist mix a THC-dominant extract and a CBD-dominant one into a dark brown oily solution.[3] It is a last-line treatment for muscle stiffness from multiple sclerosis, severe epilepsy, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, and chronic pain.[3] The specialist has to record why other treatment was not enough, tell the patient what the evidence shows, and stop the solution if it does not help.[2] El País reported that nobody has a precise count of how many of the nine million people in Spain with chronic pain will qualify.[4]
Adults are limited to 32.4 mg of THC a day and 25 mg of CBD per kilogram of body weight.[3] For children and adolescents the monograph recommends a CBD-dominant formula, because of what THC may do to a developing brain.[3]
Fifty hospitals first
Curaleaf registered the extracts in July as CAN-1 and CAN-2, made at its Medalchemy plant in Alicante.[1] El País described CAN-1 as the THC-dominant preparation and CAN-2 as the CBD-dominant one.[4] Each batch is held within 10 percent of a stated cannabinoid content, and the hospital pharmacy mixes the bottle the patient takes home.[1]
Alejandro Gil Escolano, the company’s regulatory director, told El Mundo that the preparations can already be offered to hospital pharmacies, and that sending them out still depended on finishing the logistics.[1] He said they could in principle reach about 850 hospitals, and that a public patient should not have to pay, with the hospital carrying the cost.[1]
Hospital pharmacies only
Ordinary pharmacies cannot prepare or hand out these formulas. The decree leaves that to a possible later rule, and allows a community pharmacy to make a batch for a hospital only in an exceptional case.[2] A region may arrange delivery away from the hospital when a patient is dependent, at risk, or too far away.[2]
The new solution is for people whose other medicines have failed.[2] What adults may do at home, and what the clubs supply, is on the Spain page.
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Spain here.
References
- El Mundo — Luz verde al cannabis medicinal en España (17 October 2026)archived
- BOE — Real Decreto 903/2025, de 7 de octubrearchived
- AEMPS — Formulario Nacional FN/2026/FMT/043, preparado estandarizado de cannabis solución oralarchived
- El País — Qué se sabe de los fármacos con cannabis que llegarán a los hospitales españoles (17 October 2026)archived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.