Will Polynesia finally be able to take part in therapeutic cannabis trials?

On Tuesday June 8, Moetai Brotherson, Member of Parliament for Polynesia, asked Olivier Véran, Minister of Solidarity and Health, about the extension of therapeutic cannabis trials to Polynesia, with a simple question: «What's the status?.

Extension of medical cannabis experimentation in Polynesia | One year after the request of the Polynesian executive, @Moetai1(GDR) asks the Gvt: "Where do we stand?" #DirectAN #QAG pic.twitter.com/bDPyqunMNn

- Assemblée nationale (@AssembleeNat) June 8, 2021

In February 2020, the Minister was in favor of this extension, following a question from Moetai Brotherson.

«The answer I was given at the time was to work with the ANSM and the Polynesian executive to get the Taaone Hospital to apply to become a reference center,» recalls Moetai Brotherson. «The Polynesian executive assured me that they had made such a request,» he continued. «Since then, nothing.

The Polynesian government has recently officially announced its intention to grow medical cannabis, However, this responsibility is shared between the local Ministry of Health and the metropolitan Ministry of the Interior. The Agence de Régulation de l'Action Sanitaire et Sociale has also confirmed had begun to modify the deliberation concerning poisonous substances in French Polynesia, a project halted by the Covid crisis.

«The local government must make the decision, because it has the authority under articles 13 and 14 of the 2004 organic law on the autonomous status of French Polynesia, which states that health policy is the sole responsibility of this Collectivity (...), and if the Collectivity decides to authorize the medical use of cannabis, then I have indeed made the commitment, and I am renewing it, that the national drug safety agency can intervene, directly or by signing an agreement with practitioners in the territory, to provide training (...) and then that we can look together at distribution channels so that patients in French Polynesia can benefit from this experiment», explained Minister Olivier Véran.) and then that we can look together at distribution channels so that patients in French Polynesia can benefit from this experiment", explained Minister Olivier Véran, without mentioning the request from the Polynesian government mentioned by the MP.

Deputy Moetai Brotherson nevertheless stressed that, while the local Ministry of Health could authorize experimentation, the island was not sovereign in penal terms: «As far as experimentation with a prohibited substance is concerned, you understand that the territory, even with its special status, cannot obtain authorization on its own (...) Only the State can authorize it for Polynesia».

Olivier Véran replied that he hoped the change could be made by regulation, without the need for a decree or law.