Doctors are slowly enrolling patients in France’s first experiment with medical cannabis, three months after it began. Many are eager to access the drug to address a range of disorders, including chronic pain, but participation in the experiment is onerous – and chances of success, for most, are slim. “Patients are really eager to get
Doctors are slowly enrolling patients in France’s first experiment with medical cannabis, three months after it began. Many are eager to access the drug to address a range of disorders, including chronic pain, but participation in the experiment is onerous – and chances of success, for most, are slim.
“Patients are really eager to get these products. They know they are available in other countries and some of them have been abroad to get them,” says neurologist Didier Bouhassira.
He is a pain specialist at one of France’s largest pain centres at the Ambroise Paré hospital in Boulogne, west of Paris, and is involved in an experiment that is testing out the prescription and distribution of medical cannabis in France.
Though rules are changing, and CBD, one of the components of cannabis, is becoming increasingly available in France, THC, the main psychoactive element of the plant, remains illegal, and consuming marijuana is an offense.
