These doctors will not be going on vacation together this summer. The imminent arrival of medical cannabis in France continues to divide white coats. Latest episode: a scathing press release from the Academy of Medicine and the Academy of Pharmacy… and an equally scathing response from the doctor in charge of the experiment set up in the spring of 2021.
” I‘experimentation in Classes aiming at to justify the use therapeutic from cannabis derogates to requirements methodological, safe and ethical who governnt the evaluation of any drug candidate”, reproach academics, whose role is to enlighten the president and the government in their public health policy.
For several years, the Academy of Medicine has been fiercely opposed to medical cannabis. She even refuses the name “medical cannabis”, because she considers the plant ineffective.
Today, she tackles the methodology of the life-size trial around medical cannabis. This is done in the absence ” of a clinical trial hikebet ». That is to say with a group of patients receiving an active principle, the other a placebo. According to academics, this is the only way ” devalue d‘aand way satisfactory the balance benefits/risks of one candidate medication, in the interest of the patient”.
“They have the right to give their opinion, but it is not listened to”
A position that irritates Nicolas Authier, head of the experiment: “They have the right to give their opinion, it turns out that their opinion is not listened to, he tackles with Newsweed. The decrees around medical cannabis come out one after the other, the machine is launched despite their positions. I think they should be taken with distance and very little interest. »
The professor of psychiatry also tackles a “group of academics” who “offer press releases as much borrowed from science as from morality”.
Last grievance: according to Authier, academicians opposed to medical cannabis “have never had patients in front of them”. For him, they are essentially toxicologists or biologists. ” They cannot measure, due to their medical inexperience, what we are doing. It’s not a complaint, but they don’t start from their good position. It’s as if I were asked to talk about cardiology! “.
The experiment should last another two years. For the time being, 1,500 French patients are being treated with medical cannabis, i.e. half of the places available.
