The measure was expected and was voted on Friday, October 25, in the National Assembly: France will experiment for two years the use of therapeutic cannabis from the first half of 2020. A decision that should relieve many patients with certain pathologies and for which the classic painkillers do not act or more.
France will not be one of the pioneers in this area, far from it. Since 2001, Canadians with certain incurable serious illnesses, such as AIDS and cancer, can be licensed to smoke marijuana. Other countries have been precursors like the Netherlands or Israel. In total, about thirty nations have authorized the use of therapeutic cannabis: this is the case in 17 of the 28 countries of the European Union, six Latin American countries, Australia and 33 American states. .
@ olivierveran introduced his amendment to experiment, for a maximum of two years, the medical use of cannabis.
> "This is not the Grail of painkillers", warns MP LaREM # PLFSS2020 #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/c9sMrQy47l
If no scientific study proves the benefits of therapeutic cannabis, patients who use it, however, are unanimous: it has changed their lives. Nicolas Authier, psychiatrist, specializing in pharmacology and addictology, chaired the committee of experts set up by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) which gave a favorable opinion to the experimentation of the therapeutic cannabis in France. In an interview given to Libération, he tells how one of his patients with osteogenesis imperfecta, better known as the disease of glass bones, has seen a marked improvement in his daily life thanks to cannabis.
"For a very long time, he used antiepileptic drugs, opioid painkillers, it did not do him any good, then he started taking cannabis, and I've never seen him that well." Today, he does not take any more no medicine Three years ago, I never thought I could say that, "says the doctor.
>> To read: "Legalization of recreational cannabis in France: an idea that pays?"
Experiences around the world go in the same direction, so the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended in February 2019 to change the classification of cannabis to simplify the conditions for its medical use.
"Rely on the expertise of patients" to improve dosages
The French experiment will involve people with certain forms of epilepsy, neuropathic pain, side effects of chemotherapy, or uncontrolled muscular contractions of multiple sclerosis, for which cannabis derivatives may constitute an additional therapeutic contribution.
According to Professor Serge Perrot, a rheumatologist and member of the ANSM's expert committee, interviewed by Europe 1, "about 4 million French people have no solutions [against these pains] and could justify cannabis treatment. ". But only 3,000 will be able to participate in the experiment, which will be carried out in the reference hospitals for the pathologies concerned.
An initial hospital prescription will be made by a specialist physician, neurologist or pain doctor. Patients will first have to provide themselves in hospital pharmacy and then will be able to renew their treatment in town pharmacy. The agency of the drug decided in favor of rather wide administration modalities: the treatment could thus take the form of dried flowers, oils and possibly herbal teas.
"I hope that we can rely on the expertise of patients.The evidence shows that there is already a know-how of patients who are self-medication," said Friday morning in the National Assembly the deputy of Isère Olivier Véran (LREM), a neurologist by profession and author of the amendment authorizing the experimentation of therapeutic cannabis. "If we realize after six months, a year, a year and a half that it is not necessary to continue the experiment because evidence is already made on the ground, with the patients, that it is theirs beneficial, we will have to move towards a generalization of the medical use of cannabis. "
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The return of patients will be particularly expected to study the different posologies possible since they can integrate very variable relationships between the two active ingredients of cannabis: tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), with psychoactive effects, and cannabidiol (CBD), which causes rather a muscle relaxation.
"Depending on the disease, the doctor will decide to give either more CBD or more THC The experiment aims to evaluate the effectiveness and tolerance of therapeutic cannabis.If patients feel euphoric or unpleasant effects, they will have to immediately, the dosages are not the same as those in recreational cannabis.This will be more evaluated, "says Serge Perrot on Europe 1.
Emmanuel Macron "rather favorable" to therapeutic cannabis
It remains to be seen where the therapeutic cannabis used during the experiment will come from. "If we want to put things in place within the next six months, we will not be able to count on French production, the industry will not be ready in time, so on May 15, we auditioned foreign producers. of cannabis, structured like pharmaceutical laboratories, to know what is done elsewhere ", explains Nicolas Authier in Libération.
After the vote of the National Assembly, InVivo, one of the first French cooperative farming groups, filed a request with the ANSM to position itself on the market. Problem: Currently, the law prohibits the cultivation of plants in France, more precisely those containing levels higher than 0.2% of THC.
>> To read: "What production for therapeutic cannabis in France?"
Asked about therapeutic cannabis at the end of his trip to Reunion, facing farmers interested in the industry, President Emmanuel Macron said that the executive was "rather favorable to that".
There must be "first a sanitary authorization led by the Ministry of Health" and as soon as it intervenes, "we will frame and develop it so that it can benefit local producers on our soil ", in Overseas France and metropolitan France, he said, citing in particular the department of Creuse.
According to a study by the Grand View Research firm in 2017, the global market for therapeutic cannabis could reach $ 55.8 billion in 2025 (about € 50 billion), a figure almost five times higher than in 2015.
With AFP and Reuters