Rabat – On Friday, France’s Health Ministry announced the launching of a two-year nationwide medical cannabis experiment campaign to study the positive and side effects of the plant and its derivatives on certain pathologies. The campaign will be officially launched on Monday, March 29,
With the approval of the French Drug Agency, the cannabis medical experiment will involve 3,000 patients for a duration of two years. Patients with chronic diseases will be admitted to 215 tertiary referral centers in 170 hospitals around the country.
Participating in the experiment are hospitals that have been equipped with specialist doctors in pain, oncology, neurology, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, palliative care trained for the purpose of the experiment, said Nathalie Richard, the director of the Medical Cannabis project at the ANSM Medicines Agency.
According to France’s health ministry, the experiment aims to gather data about the effectiveness and safety of Medical Cannabis in the treatment of chronic diseases to pave the way for potential legalization.
French media reported that Health Minister Olivier Veran paid a visit to Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital to mark the first medical cannabis prescription.
The launching of the experiment was first scheduled for September 2020 after the French parliament approved it in 2019, but it was delayed due to COVID-19 spread in the country.
Almost 20 countries in the European Union have already authorized treatments with medical cannabis.
