Taroudant- According to L’express, France medicines agency gave initial approval to the use of cannabis in medical products.
The Ministry of Health announced Thursday that an authorization for commercialization has been granted to Sativex, an oral spray containing extracts of cannabis plants that help relieve certain patients with multiple sclerosis (a serious illness).
The move brings Paris into line with 17 other European countries, which allow marijuana to be prescribed for medical reasons.
Cannabis-based medicines have been banned from the market in France until last June when the Health Minister Marisol Touraine passed a decree that allowed the sale of medications containing cannabis derivatives, like Sativex.
This authorization “is a step prior to the marketing of the product, which will take place at the initiative of the laboratory,” the French Ministry of Health said in a statement.
This is a "good news" to relieve patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, said Professor Michel Reynaud, a specialist in addiction at the Paul-Brousse Hospital (Paris), according to AFP.
In Morocco, there is a national debate over the legalization of the cultivation and exploitation of cannabis for medical purposes.
The Moroccan opposition Party of Modernity and Authenticity (PAM) held on December a study day conference to address “The Role of Positive Uses of the Cannabis Plant in Creating an Alternative Economy.”
In recent weeks, the Istiqlal party, Morocco's major opposition party, proposed a draft law to decriminalize and regulate the cultivation of cannabis for medical and pharmaceutical ends, thus, becoming the first party to take this issue to the parliament.
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