Law No. 7557 on Amendments to Certain Laws Concerning Healthcare and Decree Law No. 663 ("Law"), which was submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly on June 24, 2025 and adopted by the General Assembly on July 21, 2025, introduced many health-related regulations and amendments. With the adopted Law, medicinal products, health products, personal care and support products derived from cannabis are now regulated under the applicable legislation.
In the legislative proposal, the justification on this matter was stated as, "the purpose of producing the active pharmaceutical ingredient, which is dedicated to cannabis cultivation, is being converted to the purpose of obtaining medical products, health and support products, and personal care products. For the purpose of ensuring the control of all products containing medical cannabis, their sale exclusively by pharmacies, the determination of all licensing and sales processes for these products by a regulation to be issued by the Ministry of Health, the processes up to the cultivation and harvesting of the plant being under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the processes where the plant is converted into a product being under the authority of the Ministry of Health."
The Law was published in the Official Gazette dated July 24, 2025 and entered into force on the same day. The Law amended the Law No. 2313 on the Supervision of Narcotic Substances ("Law No. 2313") in relation to medicinal products, health products, personal care and support products derived from cannabis, in parallel with the abovementioned preamble of the legislative proposal.
Within the scope of these amendments, the sale of medicinal products, health products, personal care products and supplements derived from cannabis in pharmacies is permitted and the production, licensing and sale of these products are legally regulated.
The Law allows these products to be placed on the market under supervision. The regulations introduced in this context can be summarized as follows:
- With the new regulation, the sale of cannabis-based medicinal products, health products, personal care and support products that do not have narcotic effects are only allowed through pharmacies.
- In order to prevent uncontrolled distribution, which poses a risk to public health, the processes of licensing and registration to the monitoring systems of the products will be carried out under the supervision and control of the Ministry of Health.
- The cultivation and harvesting of cannabis plants shall continue to be supervised under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
- Law No. 2313 was amended with regard the definition of “active pharmaceutical ingredient” as “medicinal products, health products, personal care products that do not have a narcotic effect and support products.”
Thus, some of the definitions in the legislation have been expanded and different product categories have been brought under legal protection.
As a result, with the amendment to the Law, for the processes from the production to the sale of cannabis-based products, operation and control mechanisms have been clearly allocated among public authorities. In addition, it is explicitly stipulated that the products within this scope may only be sold in pharmacies.
You can access the relevant amendment via this link.