Therapeutic cannabis: "Let's go faster, Minister!"

Eric CORREIA, PS president of the agglomeration of Grand Guéret, regional councilor of New Aquitaine; Rachid TEMAL, senator PS of Val-d'Oise, vice-president of the socialist and republican group; Sonia KRIMI, LREM MP from La Manche; Jean-Baptiste MOREAU, LREM deputy from Creuse; Roland RIES, PS Mayor of Strasbourg; Eric PIOLLE, Mayor EELV of Grenoble; Daniel VAILLANT, former minister, councilor PS Paris eighteenth; François VINCENT, Professor of Pneumology at the University Hospital of Limoges, Regional Councilor of New Aquitaine; Amine BENYAMINA, psychiatrist, professor of the universities, head of addictology department hospital Paul-Brousse Villejuif; William LOWENSTEIN, specialist in internal medicine, addictologist; Gaspard KOENIG, professor of philosophy, writer, president of Free Generation; Fabienne CABY, Physician, Inserm Pierre-Louis Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health, HIV Unit, Victor-Dupouy Hospital Center, Argenteuil; Marlène AMILHAUD, addictologist doctor, Guéret hospital; Stéphane DELPEYRAT-VINCENT, regional councilor of New Aquitaine, president of the Generation · s group; Alexandre FELTZ, doctor, deputy mayor of Strasbourg; Florent BOUDIE, deputy LREM of Gironde, regional councilor of New Aquitaine; Isabelle BOUDINEAU, Vice-President of the Regional Council of New Aquitaine; Nathalie DELCOUDERC-JUILLARD, Mayor PS of Bort-les-Orgues, Regional Councilor of New Aquitaine; Françoise JEANSON, doctor, regional councilor PS of New Aquitaine; Jean-Louis PAGÈS, publisher, EELV Regional Advisor, New Aquitaine; Benjamin DELRIEU, regional councilor PS of New Aquitaine; Pierre JOUVET, PS president of the community of communes Porte DrômArdèche; Jacques BOUTAULT, Mayor EELV of the 2nd arrondissement of Paris; Bruno BOUTLEUX, General Director of Adami, President of Alca Nouvelle-Aquitaine; David ANGEVIN, writer; Olivier Bertrand, general practitioner, addictologist; Jean-Paul Besset, former MEP

Producing cannabis for therapeutic use in France is no longer an option but a necessity. How not to deplore the national status quo on this public health issue? Why maintain the seal of the interdict and the legislative and regulatory arsenal that accompanies it to more than 300,000 French patients who could alleviate their suffering differently? Thirty-three countries have partially or fully legalized cannabis for therapeutic use. Among them, fourteen states of North America, Israel, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Thailand and, very soon, Canada have heard the sufferings of millions of patients who are now peacefully appeased, legally.

Why do a minority of refractory use of the product as dangerous, reducing it to the category of prohibited substances? Can they draw their opposition in the concrete observation of a user patient where they suffer the pangs of speculative influences? The question thus posed now comes up against a very comprehensive report on the effects of cannabis on health that American academies of science, engineering and medicine published in 2017. Certainties and substantial proofs are revealed. They confirm the effectiveness of the product in the management of chronic pain, physical disorders caused by chemotherapy and muscle spasms related to multiple sclerosis.

Without opposing the usual French pharmacopoeia which is based on different drug clbades including opiates and derivatives such as morphine, Tramadol, Efferalgan codeine, Oxycontin, etc., used for treatment pain, it is to authorize the use of an alternative product, whose mode of action and the mode of administration such as vaporization lead to almost no side effect.

How long will France persist in cultivating its delay? On May 24, 2018, Mrs. Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Solidarities and Health, said she wanted to open the national debate on cannabis for therapeutic use that she wishes enriched with in-depth studies, indicating the obvious delay that France had taken on this opportunity. "There is no reason to exclude, on the grounds that it is cannabis, a molecule that may be of interest for the treatment of some very debilitating pains," she added. distinguish the molecules of the plant by demonstrating pedagogy to the public and elected officials. Some of them are still content to observe cannabis under the lens of its recreational effects and the delinquency it generates. According to the recent Ifop survey (for Terra Nova – EchoCitoyen, published on June 11, 2018) *, 82% of respondents favor the use of cannabis on prescription, 73% are convinced of the duty of the State in the funding of research on the therapeutic uses of cannabis, and 62% consider that medical cannabis must finally be accessible in all its forms or even refundable by Social Security. This survey highlights the delay taken by France and demonstrates the urgency to put an end to the culture of the taboo on cannabis. The therapeutic efficacy of one of its molecules (CBD) is now proven and fully exploited outside our borders.

Moreover, and from a social and economic point of view, countries that have legislated and supervised the production of therapeutic cannabis are seeing the creation of direct and induced jobs, proof of the emergence of a promising economic sector. Persisting in maintaining the legal uncertainty over the CBD contained in the plant, a medicinal and non-psychotropic molecule of cannabis, maintains an ambiguity favorable to the emergence of opportune businesses that play on the credulity of a public waiting for a clear regulation, favorable to their medical and medicinal use. Hemp producers and / or farmers who wish to diversify their culture deplore the persistent deficit of regulation which exposes them as potential litigants for drug trafficking …

In the general interest, the situation must evolve through clarified guidelines. Let's go faster, Minister! With the special plan to boost the Creuse department decreed by the president, seize the opportunity to introduce the regulation of a thriving economic sector for a territory that needs it. Solidary, we support the initiative of the elected representatives of the Creuse who claim the granting of the necessary authorizations to experiment the production and processing of cannabis cultivated, packaged and marketed locally, exclusively for therapeutic purposes. All actors in the sector are ready and expect the government a strong act to advance and regulate this new activity.

* Survey conducted on a panel of 2,016 persons aged 18 and over, using the quota method