Medical cannabis gets go-ahead for pain relief in French hospitals

‘Ample proof it works for neuropathic pain’

Under the new proposals, products will be authorised on a case-by-case basis and will remain restricted to a last-resort treatment, prescribed only in hospitals.

The decision follows months of uncertainty and brings cannabis into France’s general medical framework for the first time. 

Frantz Deschamps, president of  Santé-France Cannabis, said: “This is a major advance for patients at a therapeutic impasse.

“There is ample proof that it works, particularly for neuropathic pain such as that endured by people with infections, including shingles, HIV/AIDS, MS, diabetes, stroke, trauma, cancer and treatments such as radiotherapy, surgery and chemotherapy, as well as complex regional pain syndromes.”