Paris (AFP)
LREM deputy Olivier Veran announced Wednesday that he would defend an amendment to the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS) authorizing a two-year trial of the medical use of cannabis, reopening the debate on its legalization for purposes therapeutic.
"Because there are patients who need it and because France is one of the last countries of the European Union not to have authorized it," Wednesday justified on RTL this doctor neurologist, evoking the the situation of "thousands of patients" suffering from "serious diseases", for whom "cannabis derivatives may constitute an additional therapeutic contribution".
The experiment envisaged by the deputy of Isère, general rapporteur of the PLFSS, would take place from "early 2020" and "over two years", with "about 3,000 patients with doctors trained to prescribe" and a "true scientific monitoring ". His proposal is likely to be adopted.
At the beginning of April, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had decided that it would be "absurd" to forbid himself to study the possibilities of therapeutic cannabis. But "this is in no way a legalization of the sale of cannabis," said Matignon.
Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn had re-launched this sensitive debate in May 2018, asking different institutions that evaluate drugs to bring back "the state of knowledge on the subject", judging that there is no had "no reason to exclude, on the grounds that it is cannabis, a molecule that may be of interest for the treatment of some very debilitating pains".
"The National Agency for Drug Safety (ANSM) has issued a favorable opinion for an experiment in medical use.The agency and the Ministry of Solidarity and Health have committed to carry out the necessary work to its establishment ", recalls Olivier Véran in a statement.
© 2019 AFP