Cannabis, today classified as a narcotic, will it one day become a medicine? France is not close, at this stage, to joining the twenty European countries (including Germany, Italy, Portugal, etc.) which have taken the plunge: the experiment launched on its soil in March 2021 , under the supervision of the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), should be extended. To the great displeasure of the patient associations and health professionals involved who demanded the generalization of the prescription.
In any case, this is the line defended at the Ministry of Health, where it is announced that deputies will request this extension by way of an amendment to the social security financing bill for 2023, which should be debated in the National Assembly as of Thursday, October 20. “The experiment did not go as far as expected, the health crisis which delayed the start partly explains it”we say Avenue de Ségur, specifying that“about half of the patients expected [3 000, à l’origine] could be included in the procedure”. It also invokes ” open questions “ on the “product deployment”son ” status “ and the terms of treatment.
Heard by the Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee at the end of September, Minister François Braun had already taken a position: “The results are insufficient in terms of patients for the moment, to have results that are solid”, he pointed out then. The evaluation report of the experiment, submitted a few weeks ago to the authorities, has not yet been made public – “it should be in Parliament shortly”, we promise in the entourage of Mr. Braun. In the meantime, doctors and scientists involved do not make secret of their observations.
First on the number. To those who believe that it is insufficient with regard to the initial objective of 3,000 patients, Nicolas Authier, president of the monitoring committee at the ANSM, replies: “With 2,100 patients included, the number is sufficient to validate the effectiveness of the experiment. » About 100 to 120 additional patients participate in the experiment each month. “1,400 patients are still being treated today”.
Not a miracle product
Therapeutic cannabis, which can be administered in the form of oil, drops, or inhaled with a vaporizer, is intended for patients not relieved by conventional medicine, with five indications: refractory neuropathic pain, severe epilepsies, complications related to cancer or its treatments, palliative situations and painful spasticity (abnormal muscle stiffness). In total, in these indications, around 70,000 French patients could ultimately benefit from medical cannabis, specifies Nathalie Richard, director of experimentation at the ANSM.
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