Social Affairs Committee adopts extension of medical cannabis trial

The Extension of the medical cannabis pilot program, although it was initiated by the Ministry of Health, is now being addressed as part of the Social Security Funding Bill.

Several amendments were introduced by the various parliamentary groups that make up the committee.

In summary:

• In four separate amendments, EELV proposed the legalization of recreational cannabis, a pilot program to legalize recreational cannabis, the widespread adoption of medical cannabis, or the extension of the pilot program for one year. The first three were deemed inadmissible, and the last was rejected.
• A bipartisan group led by Caroline Janvier proposed extending the medical cannabis pilot program for one year, with a requirement that the Ministry of Health work on «the conditions for the production and distribution of medical cannabis, as well as the advisability of its reimbursement.» The amendment was rejected.
• Horizons proposed extending the pilot program for three years. The amendment was adopted.
• Stéphanie Rist, the member of the National Assembly from the Loiret and the committee’s rapporteur, introduced a subamendment proposing a one-year extension. The subamendment was adopted.

The amendment to be debated on the floor of the chamber will therefore propose extending the pilot program by one year.

To the best of our knowledge, no budget has been allocated for this extension. Nor is there any obligation to make it universal at the end of the potential extension. The ministry is also not committing to establishing the conditions for the production and distribution of medical cannabis in France in the meantime, nor to studying its reimbursement.

If the proposed amendment were not passed during its consideration by the National Assembly, as we understand it, the pilot program would end without being rolled out nationwide.

The explanatory statement for the adopted subamendment explains that the pilot program «has not yet yielded sufficient clinical results to allow for a decision on its widespread implementation.»

Let’s just note, for the record, that the trial of medical cannabis was not intended to produce clinical results but «to evaluate, in real-world settings, the Committee’s recommendations regarding prescribing and dispensing conditions, as well as the adherence of healthcare professionals and patients to these conditions,» according to the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM).