France's medical cannabis experiment re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-reinitiated with just 700 patients

France has once again (we've stopped counting...) extended its experiment on the medical marijuana to avoid interruption of treatment for patients enrolled in the program.

Announced at a meeting of the Temporary Scientific Committee of the’ANSM (Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé) and unveiled by Pr Nicolas Authier, this decision extends the March 31, 2026 deadline indefinitely.

We have contacted the press services of the DGS and the Ministry of Health, who will not fail to answer our questions on the duration of the extension and the reasons for the lack of generalization.

From thousands of patients to a small cohort

While this measure brings some (measured) short-term relief, it rather highlights a chilling reality: after five years of experimentation, regulatory work and political delays, only 700 patients remain active in the French trial out of the almost 3,000 it could count.

700 patients

What was once presented as a prerequisite for legalization has been reduced to an endangered symbolic measure.

The Department of Health obviously presented the latest extension as a safeguard measure, ensuring that patients would not be «suddenly deprived» of treatment on April 1, 2026. But the lower patient numbers illustrates a deeper failure to translate experimentation into sustainable policy.

A framework ready, but still unsigned

The paradox is that french general framework for medical cannabis is technically complete. After five years of work, the regulatory texts were submitted to the European Commission in March 2025, approved by Brussels in June and validated by the Council of State in August.

All that remains today just need to sign two implementing decrees, ready for ages. The signing of these agreements could have taken place at any time, but repeated political crises were used as an easy excuse to relegate them to the Greek calendar.

Patients trapped in a regulatory vacuum

For patients, the situation is increasingly precarious. The extension does not open up access to new participants, which means that the experience continues to shrink. In concrete terms, France is maintaining treatment for an ever smaller group, rather than extending access to those who need it.

Ludovic Rachou, President of UIVEC, welcomed the extension to our British counterparts at Business of Cannabis, There is no longer any room for ambiguity: the government must now publish the texts needed to ensure a lasting exit from the experiment«.

The HAS bottleneck and the uncertainty of reimbursement

Even once the framework has been published, another obstacle remains: the French Health Authority (HAS). This is responsible for evaluating reimbursement levels, prescriber training requirements and the role of medical cannabis in the healthcare system.

The HAS has already declared that it cannot finalize its work until the corresponding decree was officially published. Although an evaluation process began in July 2025, its original target of delivering its findings by the end of the first quarter of 2026 now seems increasingly unrealistic.

For patients, this means a new layer of uncertainty.

Another French failure. By intention or incompetence?