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Thousands of French medical cannabis patients have been given a temporary reprieve, enabling them to continue accessing their treatment for another six months.

Amid the continued political chaos in the country, participants in France’s medical cannabis ‘experiment,’ which is now entering its fifth year, faced an abrupt end to their often life-changing treatments on December 31, 2024.

Despite yet another extension to the programme, which was initially slated to end in 2023, uncertainty remains over whether medical cannabis will be ‘generalised’ as promised by the government and rolled out across the national health service.

It comes as the newly stated Minister of Health, Yannick Neuder, said that he thinks ‘the path to therapeutic cannabis’ needs to be ‘studied’ due to its effectiveness in relieving ‘stubborn pains that are often not relieved by other medications.’

However, given successive governments failure to act on these promises and come forth with a plan for generalisation, which was supposed to be launched in January this year, patients and cannabis advocates remain sceptical.

Furthermore, as part of the announcement detailing the new extension, the ANSM stipulated that it was intended to give patients time to wean themselves off the treatment and seek alternatives.

What happened?

In late December, Business of Cannabis reported that French patient associations had warned that medical cannabis patients could soon face a disruption in treatment as its long-running experiment came to an end with no next steps in place.

France’s medical cannabis ‘experiment’ has now been running since 2021 and was widely expected to act as a precursor to a fully fledged medical cannabis system.

After being extended numerous times, seeing the government be repeatedly accused of ‘kicking the can down the road,’ the government finally put plans in place to enable medical cannabis to be ‘generalised,’ beginning in 2025.

As part of this plan, the program has been in a so-called ‘transition’ period. This means that while no new patients can sign up to take part in the trial, those currently taking part continued to receive their medication and be reimbursed until a fully fledged medical cannabis program has been established.

However, this phase ended on December 31, 2024, and no plans or budget have been established to enable the thousands of patients to continue to access their treatment.

“This will leave several hundred patients suffering from refractory neuropathic pain, who derive significant relief from their physical and psychological suffering, facing a sudden interruption in their treatment,” The French Society for the Study and Treatment of Pain (SFETD) said last month.

“This disruption could lead to a resurgence of severe and debilitating pain, as well as withdrawal symptoms due to the abrupt cessation of treatment.”

Another extension 

In response to growing pressure, the outgoing Minister of Health Geneviève Darrieussecq, extended the medical cannabis trial until June 30, 2025.

This was later validated by the new health minister, Neuder, who assumed office on December 23, 2024, with the caveat that patients should use this time to wean themselves off treatment and seek alternatives.

Neuder said that following the extension, patients will be able to ‘continue taking (their treatment) while waiting to reorganise, to consult to find out if we can create a channel around this new source of medication.’

He continued: “I think that we need to study this path of therapeutic cannabis because it covers a range of stubborn pains that are often not relieved by other medications… cancer treatment, stiffness, facial pain.”

The future of medical cannabis in France

There remains little clarity around the continued delays or the new government’s position on cannabis treatments, meaning its future is now largely in the hands of Neuder.

French medical authorities have raised concerns around the efficacy of medical cannabis based on a 2021 reference study published in the British Medical Journal.

This is despite its own four-year experiment yielding overwhelmingly positive results for the patients included.

According to data released in 2023 by the ANSM, as of October 18, 2022, 2,204 patients had been included in the experiment, 91% of whom said they were in support of medical cannabis legalisation in France.

However, the trial was only ever intended to provide safety and efficacy data as a ‘secondary objective’, instead focusing on the realities of rolling out a medical cannabis framework.

As such, to the dismay of many, these results had little impact on the future of the country’s increasingly uncertain generalisation plans.

Political instability, which has seen four governments come and go over the last year, has exacerbated the government’s lack of action on medical cannabis, pushing it down the list of priorities while the rise of the right and an increasing debt crisis take centre stage.

As such, the future of the programme now continues to rest on the budget for the year ahead, a key factor in the political chaos.

For medical cannabis to be generalised, the relevant texts will need to be included in the PLFSS (The French Social Security Finance Bill), which is due to be debated in the coming weeks.

As for political will, the new Prime Minister, François Bayrou, has previously defended medical cannabis and told AFP that he would make his position known ‘soon’.

In the meantime, patients continue to wait in the dark, with health professionals warning of potential rehospitalisations and even suicide for those who depend on the treatment for debilitating chronic pain issues.

“}]] Thousands of French medical cannabis patients have been given a temporary reprieve, enabling them to continue accessing their treatment for another six months.  Read More  

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