France: therapeutic cannabis proposed for Social Security's 2020 budget

Congressman Olivier Véran, who had said he was «all in» for medical cannabis in December 2018, announced that he would propose including the French medical cannabis pilot program in the 2020 Social Security budget (PLFSS).

While the statement is worth reading, it is a prerequisite for launching the pilot program approved in July by the ANSM, scheduled for 2020, but which is currently neither funded nor organized as we reported last week. Registration with the PLFSS will also ensure that participants in the pilot program are fully covered.

“Because there are patients who need it and because France is one of the last countries in the European Union not to have authorized it,” he explained On Wednesday on RTL, Olivier Véran spoke of the “thousands of patients” suffering from “serious illnesses,” for whom “cannabis-derived products can provide additional therapeutic benefits.”.

However, the pilot program will involve only 3,000 of them, for very specific conditions, while estimates of patients who could be relieved or treated with medical cannabis range from 300,000 to 1 million at the lower end.

The products will initially be distributed through hospital pharmacies in the form of oils, capsules, or dried flowers for vaporization. The supply chain has not yet been defined but is expected to rely on imports, with the possibility of eventually transitioning to domestic production. The informatory mission on cannabis use Launched at the initiative of LREM lawmaker Jean-Baptiste Moreau, the commission will examine this possibility in detail.