Question 11129 — pharmacy and medications

Summary

Ms. Corinne Vignon draws the attention of the Minister of Solidarity and Health to the legalization of cannabis for therapeutic use. A recent study published in “The European Journal of Internal Medicine” demonstrated that therapeutic cannabis would indeed be effective in treating pain in the elderly. 901 patients over 65 years old participated in this research. All suffered from pain related either to cancer, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress, ulcerative colitis (inflammatory bowel disease), or even Crohn's disease. After six months of treatment with medical cannabis, more than 93% of participants reported that their pain had decreased by 4 to 8 points on a scale of 1 to 10. More than 70% of patients said they felt an overall improvement in their condition. However, despite these figures, scientific studies and data are lacking, partly due to a lack of funding. This week, the Government announced that France had fallen behind on this subject and that there was no reason to rule out cannabis for medical purposes in the treatment of illnesses. This announcement follows a recent referral from a patient about the “unethical” nature of the cannabis ban in a therapeutic context. The Ethics and Cancer Committee should also soon examine this question. Currently in France, only one cannabinoid drug has marketing authorization: Sativex, recommended against spasticity and multiple sclerosis. Dronabinol and cannabidiol, used for patients suffering from neuropathic pain refractory to conventional treatments or epilepsy, are accessible, but only with a temporary nominative authorization (procedure making it possible to make available to certain patients a medicine which does not have a marketing authorization and is not the subject of a clinical trial in this indication). Also, she would like to know the Government's road map on this subject.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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