Highly anticipated by patients suffering from chronic illnesses or subject to severe pain, the decree authorizing experimentation with cannabis for medical use has just been published in a very controlled and limited framework.
- The decree, published on Friday, October 9, provides for the experimentation of therapeutic cannabis with 3,000 patients with serious illnesses before March 2021.
- The protocol, very supervised and limited, excludes smoking cannabis.
Almost two years after the favorable opinion of the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM), and after a long stagnation due, in particular, to the health crisis, therapeutic cannabis will soon be tested in France.
On Friday October 9, the Ministry of Health gave the green light by decree to a very controlled experiment which should benefit 3,000 patients suffering from certain forms of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, neuropathic pain or even side effects. of chemotherapy. The decree specifies that the experimentation must begin before March 2021.
“The decree is published in a difficult context for patients in particular, victims of an ever stronger stigmatization and an offensive government discourse against cannabis in general”said in a press release the Alternative Collective for Cannabis for Therapeutic Purposes (ACT).
Dissonant speech in the majority
Initially carried by Olivier Véran, then deputy of the majority, the text initially provided for an experiment from September. Since then, a hardening of tone with regard to the consumption of cannabis in France, had sown doubt, even in the ranks of LREM deputies. Since 1er September, the fixed fine of 200 euros was generalized to all drug users, including cannabis, and the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin strongly opposed any decriminalization, qualifying cannabis as “shit”. Interviewed this week on the LCP channel, the Minister Delegate for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa had declared that she was personally opposed to therapeutic cannabis, before backpedaling in the face of the rumble of deputies at the forefront of the issue, including the majority. She then explained that she had misunderstood the question and had spoken out on recreational cannabis.
Already authorized in around thirty countries in the world, cannabis for medical use was nevertheless eagerly awaited by patient associations, as well as by the deputies of the parliamentary mission who had been working on the subject for months. “France must come out of prehistory in terms of cannabis”had thus declared the general rapporteur of the mission, Jean-Baptiste Moreau (LREM), quoted by The worldarguing that cannabis “is a drug but can also be a medicine”.
A very structured protocol
The decree makes it clear that there is no question, for the patients concerned, of being prescribed seals by their attending physician, the protocol for the delivery of therapeutic cannabis being strictly defined. The first prescription will thus have to be written by a medical specialist, a neurologist or a pain doctor, within the hospitals and reference centers chosen to participate in the experiment.
The products tested will not be in the form of smoking cannabis, but in the form of oil, capsules or even dried flowers in a vaporizer.
.
