BERLIN - The German government gave the go-ahead yesterday to relax rules on cannabis use by the seriously ill from early next year if they have no other treatment options.

Dried cannabis flowers and cannabis extracts will be available in pharmacies on prescription and the public health system will cover the cost, according to the draft bill that is expected to come into force next year.

Other countries that allow cannabis use for medical purposes include Italy and the Czech Republic. Some U.S. states have decriminalised cannabis completely. Portugal has decriminalised all drugs for personal use, but does not allow cannabis use for medical purposes.

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GERMANY plans to set up a state cannabis agency to regulate the drug's cultivation and distribution to treat seriously ill patients.

More pain sufferers would be given regulated access to the drug on prescription and paid for by their health insurance under measures outlined in a draft bill from the ministry of health and seen by German newspaper Weltam Sonntag.

However, patients would still be banned from growing the drug. Until now, almost 400 pain sufferers in Germany have been legally authorised to obtain cannabis at their own expense, almost exclusively those suffering from terminal cancer.

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BERLIN - A conservative politician who crossed the aisle and has joined the German Green Party's campaign to legalize marijuana has revived a long-running debate about the drug in Europe's largest economy.

Lawmaker Joachim Pfeiffer, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, recently co-sponsored legislation that would lift Germany's ban on marijuana and regulate the drug like alcohol and tobacco - and, supporters say, bring in billions more marks in tax revenue.

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Cannabis use likely triggered fatal complications that led to the deaths of two men with underlying health conditions, according to scientists in Germany. The findings are noteworthy because cannabis isn't normally associated with acute physical problems, let alone death.

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They had stomach cramps, nausea, anemia and fatigue, and some even had a telltale bluish line along their gums -- classic signs of lead poisoning. But the cases, last year in Leipzig, Germany, puzzled doctors. Lead poisoning is rare in Germany, and yet here were 29 cases in just a few months. The doctors noticed a pattern: the patients were young, from 16 to 33; they were students or unemployed; and they had body piercings and a history of smoking.

In a letter published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors wrote, "On questioning, all the patients eventually conceded that they were regular users of marijuana."

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Drug dealers looking for extra profits apparently added lead flakes to packets of marijuana, inflating their value while causing dozens of cases of serious poisoning, doctors in Germany reported today.

The lead made up, on average, 10 per cent of the material in the marijuana packets, boosting profits by about $US1,500 ($A1,613) per kilogram, Franzika Busse of University Hospital Leipzig reported.

"One package contained obvious lead particles; this strongly indicated that the lead was deliberately added to the package rather than inadvertently incorporated into the marijuana plants from contaminated soil," the researchers wrote in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.

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German Police Raid Border Plantations to Combat a Spillover of the Soft-Drug Culture As the Netherlands Gets Tougher

Cannabis farmers in Germany were the target of a massive crackdown yesterday as police raided more than 200 plantations to tackle the new soft-drug culture that has spilt over from the Netherlands.

Officers seized mature plants, packets of dried drugs and growing-equipment in the raids, which involved police forces from 16 regional states and 1,500 investigators.

"We thought he was just a passionate gardener," an incredulous neighbour said after police stormed an apartment in Aachen near the Belgian border.

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HAMBURG - The active ingredient in marijuana may suppress tumour invasion in highly invasive cancers, according to new research in Germany.

Cannabinoids, the active components in marijuana, are already used medically to reduce the side effects of cancer treatment, such as pain, weight loss and vomiting.

But the new study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, finds that the compounds may also have an anti-cancer effect.

However, more research is needed to determine whether the laboratory results would hold true in humans, the authors wrote.

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A cannabis folk remedy has been resurrected by scientists who found that active ingredients in the drug reduce allergic reactions.

The research, conducted on mice, points the way towards new cannabis-based treatments for irritated skin.

Extracts from the hemp plant were traditionally used to treat inflammation and could be bought from chemists in the early part of the 20th century.

But fears about the intoxicating effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that causes the cannabis high, led to a ban on sales in the 1930s.

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BONN, Germany (AP-CP) -- Canadian Paralympic skier Kimberly Joines has been banned from competition for nine months after testing positive for marijuana.

The Edmonton native tested positive at a World Cup event in Aspen, Colo., in January.

Joines, 26, had illegal levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, the International Paralympic Committee said Thursday.

She was given a nine-month ban because it was her first doping offence.

Joines, who broke her back in a snowboarding accident in 2000, won a bronze medal in the sit-ski super-G at the 2006 Turin Paralympics.

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THOUSANDS of Germans have been stuffing euro notes up their noses -- and destroying not only their health but also the currency, police believe.

They say that the mystery of why euro notes have been falling apart since the summer -- many look moth-eaten after only a day in the pocket -- is down to an increasing use of crystal methamphetamine. In Germany this drug is fast replacing cocaine as the illegal party substance of choice.

The main variant used in nightclubs is white and goes by the names of "tweak", "tina" or "ice".

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German police have claimed that the corrosive designer drug known as "crystal meth" was responsible for hundreds of self-destructing euro notes which have been mysteriously disintegrating in the hands of baffled shoppers and bank clerks since early last summer.

More than 1,700 crumbling €50 and €20 notes have surfaced in at least 17 German towns and cities since June this year, prompting fears of a potential health risk and speculation about a possible blackmail attempt.

The crumbing note mystery, which causes large holes to appear in euro notes as soon as they are touched, prompted a nationwide investigation by police and the German Bundesbank, which has been obliged to take back hundreds of damaged €50 and €20 notes. Yet nobody blamed drug users for the problem.

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GRAFENWOHR, Germany -- Willie Nelson might be able to smoke marijuana and succeed, but the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse for many people are devastating, according to 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division commander Lt. Col. Michael A. Todd.

Todd, the keynote speaker at a Drug Abuse Resistance Education graduation ceremony Monday for 42 Grafenwohr Elementary School sixth-graders, was responding to a question about Nelson, whose pro-marijuana views were featured on a radio show broadcast by the Armed Forces Network.

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DRESDEN -- Police in Germany staged a pre-dawn raid on a suspected drug dealer on Saturday, wrecking his furnishings and shooting his two dogs - only to find out they had raided a fellow police officer's home by mistake.

His blood-spattered apartment a shambles, the policeman informed his colleagues that the suspect resided in the flat above his.

The officers then went upstairs where the next raid also failed to turn up any illicit drugs or weapons, shame-faced police said Saturday.

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"What we have is a generation of pot heads, many of whom become psychologically if not physically addicted to cannabis."

Renate Kuenast, German Consumer Affairs Minister

Teenagers in Germany are smoking cannabis in alarming numbers, prompting health authorities to issue stern health warnings and to call for stringent anti-drugs efforts by schools.

A national survey shows nearly one out of every four 15-year-olds has smoked marijuana or hashish and that 15 percent do so regularly.

Adding to the concerns is the fact that cannabis is far more potent now as a result of the EU's eastward expansion, permitting ready access to cannabis producers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

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When teachers at Herder school in north Germany discovered a chocolate cake outside their room, they suspected nothing.

Pupils had often brought in cakes to raise money for charity, so staff sliced it up and tucked in.

But before too long, 10 teachers from the elite school in Lüneburg started trembling, feeling unwell and suffering from hallucinations.

Police called in to investigate confirmed that the cake had contained large amounts of hashish.

All 10 teachers were treated at a clinic after eating the cake on Wednesday but were later released. The remains of the cake were being examined, police spokesman Michael Düker said.

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RHEIN-MAIN AIR BASE, Germany - After a one-year hiatus, schoolchildren at Rhein-Main Air Base can again take a D.A.R.E.

For the past year, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program was suspended at Rhein-Main after D.A.R.E. officers were asked to take a new, nine-week recertification course at a cost of $5,000. Lack of funding prevented attendance.

This year, Air Force officials sought outside help to get the program going again. The provost marshal office for the Army's Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 221st Base Support Battalion, in Wiesbaden, stepped up, providing a D.A.R.E. officer once a week to teach kindergartners about safety, while older children learn how to say no to drugs.

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Further evidence has emerged that an ingredient of cannabis could help prevent epileptic seizures.

Some experts are now calling for fresh research into the potential of cannabis-like compounds to help alleviate the condition.

Researchers from Germany found that natural brain chemicals which resemble cannabis extracts can interrupt a process which can trigger a seizure.

There have been trials of cannabis compounds in MS and cancer patients.

There are reports dating from the 15th century talking about the use of cannabis to ease the symptoms of epilepsy.

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But Germany's "Drug-Consumption Rooms" Keep Addicts Safe Until They're Ready To Kick -- Or Not

In 2000 the German Parliament signed into law an amendment to the Narcotics Act legalizing "drug-consumption rooms," or Drogenkonsumräum (DKRs). These facilities, operated by nonprofits, provide space where hard users can take drugs in a safe environment under medical supervision. In the years since the amendment, drug-related deaths in Germany have decreased by 25 percent. Similar facilities have opened in Vancouver, B.C., and Australia, where they're called "safe injection rooms." But in Germany they are explicitly legal.

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Many ancient headache treatments, recorded by Persian physicians, have been proven in modern-day studies to be effective pain relievers according to a new German report.

Medieval Persian texts revealing that opium and cannabis were often used, as well as oil from willow trees - from which aspirin was derived centuries later - suggest that many other such remedies should be scientifically tested for therapeutic value as well, says Dr Ali Gorji, of the Institute for Physiology, Munster University, in Germany, in a report in the journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences.

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