If the PLFSS 2024 will arrive before parliamentarians this fall, negotiations are underway to find out which themes to include in next year’s Social Security budget, and in particular medical cannabis.
The presence of a budget dedicated to the generalization of medical cannabis in the PLFSS would ensure its sustainability, while its absence, if it would not sign its death warrant, would greatly complicate the arrival of medical cannabis in France.
Still obstacles to overcome
Of all the people we contacted, and who wish to remain anonymous, its inclusion is however not self-evident, despite the very positive results of the various reports on the experiment.
Among the obstacles raised, the position of the Minister of the Interior, whose battle against drugs goes beyond the therapeutic and well-being issues of cannabis or hemp-based products.
To add to the complexity of the situation, the Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviors (MILDECA), placed under the authority of Matignon, would play spoilsport and would be reluctant to legalize medical cannabis. .
If the prospect of the legalization of medical cannabis is awaited by French patients, the various currents of decision-making would thus rather go against a generalization of medical cannabis. We are just told that the Ministry of Health would like a generalization, the absence of which would be incomprehensible given the European panorama of medical cannabis with more than 20 countries having legalized one form or another of cannabis-based treatment. And from the German neighbor which, not content with being the first European country in terms of medical cannabis, is currently embarking on its first phase of legalization of cannabis for adults.
End of the experiment: what next?
One of the questions no one wants to answer is: what will happen if medical cannabis is not generalized?
What will happen to the patients now included in the experiment and who have already had to face significant shortages in terms of products? And on a less vital basis, industrialists who have already embarked on medical cannabis cultivation runs, for the moment limited to research, and whose flowers or flower extracts are now destroyed while waiting to have the right to provide them to patients?
According to our information, the inclusion or not of medical cannabis in the PLFSS will be decided before September. For the rest, French patients will have to wait.
