France launches into therapeutic cannabis
Experimentation with therapeutic cannabis for at least 3,000 people begins this Friday, March 26, 2021. © iStock
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France authorizes the use of therapeutic cannabis.
For the moment, it is only an experiment which will last two years and which will begin this Friday, March 26.
It is at the Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital, in the presence of the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, that the first patient will be prescribed medical cannabis this Friday afternoon.
Ultimately, 3,000 will be part of this scientific study.
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Three thousand people in palliative care or suffering from a serious disease such as multiple sclerosis, cancer or epilepsy among others and that nothing relieves, will be selected.
They can ingest cannabis oil or inhale vaporized dried flowers.
No question, therefore, of smoking it.
Registration in the cohort of volunteers and the first prescription must be done at the hospital.
Then a general practitioner can take over for the following prescriptions and monthly checks.
Five more in-depth meetings will punctuate the two years that this full-scale clinical trial will last.
The participants in the study will obtain their supplies from pharmacists who, like all the caregivers involved, are volunteers and have been trained.
Pharmacists who will supply themselves from six French pharmaceutical companies who have had to forge partnerships with foreign producers - Canadian, Israeli, British and Australian.
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To read also: France: deputies consult the French on “recreational” cannabis
Because while it will be legal to consume cannabis as part of this medical experiment, growing and transforming it remains prohibited in France.
These companies will manufacture and distribute the drugs free of charge.
Controls can be carried out at any time to ensure their quality, specifies the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM).
A report will be submitted to Parliament six months before the end of the experiment in order to determine whether generalization is possible and under what conditions.
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Also to listen: What research on cannabis for therapeutic purposes?
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