This past summer the French food and drug office, the Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament, greenlighted limited medical cannabis trials inside France, something that’s been illegal since 1953.
Many have applauded the move as an important first step toward rational, public health-oriented cannabis regulation in France. The Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament similarly praised the trial for its groundbreaking efforts to produce “the first French data on the efficiency and safety” of cannabis for medical therapies.
This is all well and good. However, when it comes to cannabis, a peculiar historical amnesia seems to be gripping French medicine. These trials are not the nation’s first efforts to produce scientific data on medicinal cannabis products. Far from it.
Read the full article at The Conversation (David A. Guba, Jr.)