Mauritius starts therapeutic cannabis trial

Four months after learning the report of the Technical Committee on Cannabis for medical use, the Mauritian government has given the go-ahead for a trial on therapeutic cannabis. Mauritian doctors will first be trained by an American foundation, the Society of Cannabis Clinicians (SCC).

Each of the island's regional hospitals will have to integrate a therapeutic committee that will validate each prescription for cannabis. Visit cannabis-based medicines will be distributed free of charge to patients visiting public hospitals.

Last January, the Mauritian government gave the green light for the use of the medical marijuana. This treatment will only be offered to patients suffering from cancer requiring chemotherapy, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, among others. The drugs will be imported and must have validated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US drug agency. We can guess between the lines that it will be Sativex or Epidiolex.

For the time being, the island has no plans to grow cannabis on its own soil.

The Mauritian law governing the possession of cannabis will have to be amended so that medicines with a content not exceeding 30 milligrams of cannabidiol per millilitre and 30 milligrams of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol per milliliter can be used as an inhalation, spray or ointment.

The use of therapeutic cannabis in Mauritius has been envisaged for several years.