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After several years of debate, therapeutic cannabis will be tested next year in France. But who will be entitled to it? Who can prescribe? In what form will this therapeutic cannabis be presented? Professor Serge Perrot, a rheumatologist, answers all these questions on Tuesday in the program "No appointment" on Europe 1.
France will experiment with therapeutic cannabis in some patients, but who will be concerned?
"There is a risk of disappointment, because the idea is not to make therapeutic cannabis available to all patients who need it, the idea is to set up an experiment. It's not a question of whether therapeutic cannabis is effective, but how it's going to happen - these are mainly practical questions: who will prescribe it, who will renew, where will the people get their supplies, what will they do? to be the prescription period? "
What are the conditions to test it?
"There are five situations in France for which cannabis will be tested: the painful space of multiple sclerosis, rebel epilepsy, supportive care in oncology, palliative care and chronic pain. considers that about 12 million French people suffer from chronic pain.In these cases, the drugs are not very effective.It is estimated therefore that about 4 million French people have no solutions and could justify treatment. Cannabis relieves, relaxes, improves sleep and anxiety, but unfortunately, it's not the big pain medicine. "
Where can patients be prescribed therapeutic cannabis?
"It's going to happen in two stages: firstly, there are five situations in France for which cannabis is going to be tested (see above), and each time patients will go to specialists. pain, there are 38 centers of pain in France who will participate in the experimentation.It will be in these centers that patients can be prescribed.
The patients who will test it will have to be motivated, because they will be enormously studied. They will have to fill out questionnaires on paper and online. And then in a second time, we will see how it will happen. The general practitioner may possibly renew the prescription. The pharmacists will be able to propose some, but it will be plants. There will be several different formulas of cannabis. We will experiment with the type of cannabis, what kind of plants, for how many people, etc ... "
Can we hope, with cannabis, to improve the living conditions of people in chemotherapy?
"Recent studies are quite disappointing, there are much better nausea medications in chemotherapy, and in the long run, we know that cannabis can improve appetite." But there are many fantasies and misconceptions about the fact that cannabis would solve all the problems. "
In what form will therapeutic cannabis be consumed? It will not be smoking joints?
"No. At first they are plants, in various forms: resins, infusions, vaping, capsules, creams ... All kinds of preparations will be proposed by specialists, with different dosages.There are two great compounds in cannabis: CBD, which has a relaxing effect and will treat rather epilepsy, then THC, which has a psychodysleptic effect, that is to say it makes you hover and acts on pain. This is all that must be considered in each patient.According to the disease, the doctor will decide to give either more CBD or more THC The experiment aims to evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of therapeutic cannabis. If patients feel euphoric or uncomfortable, they will have to call their doctors right away, but in principle the dosages are not the same as those in recreational cannabis and this will be further evaluated. "
Will the legalization of therapeutic cannabis pave the way for the legalization of recreational cannabis?
"It is indeed to legalize therapeutic cannabis and then say that it is dangerous, but it is the same for morphine, which is allowed to treat pain and banned in the public domain. , with the good and the bad effect of the drug Experimentation is the good use of a substance, without prejudices, with the right dosage for each patient.
Is France lagging behind its European neighbors?
Many countries are already using it: Germany, England, Holland, Spain ... But in some countries, especially in Germany, there are excesses, and some doctors can no longer control the situation. It's also complicated in England. In these countries, it is quite easy to find pain and to turn one's recreational demand into a therapeutic one. In France, this delay may allow us to learn from these mistakes. "