A proposal has been tabled in France aimed at further extending the country’s long-running medical cannabis ‘experiment’ to ensure patients are able to keep receiving their medication amid government inaction.
France’s medical cannabis programme has found itself in an eerily similar position to this time last year, having once again been left out of the draft Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS).
This annual document lays out the budget for the coming year, and with no mention of medical cannabis, which is currently in a ‘transition’ phase ahead of a full rollout, the future of the programme has once again been thrown into uncertainty.
In a last-ditch effort to secure funding to keep the process moving forward, an amendment to the PLFSS has now been proposed by Ensemble pour la République MPs Michel Lauzzana and Jean-François Rousset with help from Santé France Cannabis.
The proposed amendment
Yesterday, Newsweed reported that an amendment had been tabled seeking to extend the timeline of the medical cannabis experiment, which has now been running since 2021.
Currently the programme, which includes thousands of patients, is in a so-called ‘transition’ period. This means that while no new patients can sign up to take part in the trial, those currently taking part will continue to receive their medication and be reimbursed until a fully fledged medical cannabis programme has been established.
