The limited trial of cannabis for therapeutic use for patients with serious diseases had been due to end this month, having been authorised in France in October 2020. But the scheme has been extended until March 24th, 2024 as part of the government’s flagship Social Security law.
Orders published in the Journal Officiel specify the terms of participation for doctors and pharmacists in the experiment, as well as conditions of prior training and remuneration, specifications of cannabis-based medicines that can be used, and the conditions of their availability as well as the therapeutic indications or clinical situations in which they will be used.
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Under the trial rules, medical cannabis’s use is limited prescription treatment for neuropathic pain, some drug-resistant forms of epilepsy, certain stubborn oncology symptoms related to cancer or cancer treatment, palliative situations and pathologies of the central nervous system including multiple sclerosis.
Recreational use of cannabis remains illegal in France, although the country has one of the highest rates of recreational cannabis use in Europe.
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