Agnès Buzyn: medical cannabis «could come to France».»

Agnès Buzyn, French Minister of Health, was this morning's guest on France Inter's Grand Entretien. Asked about the benefits of therapeutic cannabis after hearing the testimony of a patient suffering from neuropathic pain, she said indicated that it «could come to France».

«France has fallen behind in the field of research on the medical marijuana. There's no reason to exclude cannabis from treating this pain. It could happen in France.»

She added that she had «asked the various institutions that evaluate medicines to report back to me on the state of knowledge on the subject, because there is no reason to exclude, on the pretext that it is cannabis, a molecule that may be interesting for the treatment of certain very incapacitating pains.»

I can't tell you how fast we're going to develop it, but in any case, I'm opening the debate with the institutions responsible for this development,« she adds.

This is the first time that such a clear statement has been made by the Minister of Health on this subject. It should be added that the French legislative framework has authorized the use of cannabinoids in medicine since 2013, but to date no medication is available.

In Europe, all our neighbors authorize the use of medical cannabis in one way or another.