A medical treatment based on cannabis, used mainly for pain relief, will be available in France in 2025, the French medicines agency announced on Tuesday, despite experiments on the subject having been ongoing for several years, AFP reported.

“Completion of trials and approval of cannabis-based medicines is on track for 2025,” the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) announced in a press release.

Several European countries, as well as Israel and some US states, already allow doctors to prescribe cannabis-based products, a therapeutic option that is controversial in the medical world.

Advantages, but not great

The therapeutic value of cannabis, which is primarily used to treat pain and anxiety, is a matter of debate. So far, research tends to support some benefits, but it remains limited.

For its part, France has been considering the possibility of legalizing medical cannabis for several years, and in 2021 began a study involving several thousand patients.

At the end of 2023, after a long period of delay on the issue, the government cleared the way for the authorization of medical cannabis, giving it special status through the annual Social Security Funding Act.

This statute allows the ANSM to authorize cannabis-based products for five years without waiting for European Union (EU) approval.

With a view to next year’s approval, “these medicines must receive an authorization issued by the ANSM no later than December 31, 2024,” the agency stressed.

photo: DreamsTime / Tom Voelz