France's medical cannabis patients are still in a transitional arrangement

How France ended up here

France launched a national medical cannabis experiment in March 2021: a closed cohort, defined indications, mandatory prescriber training and a limited set of authorised products. It closed to new patients in March 2024 and ended on 31 December 2024, because parliamentary work on the 2025 social security financing bill did not produce an extension.

That left a cohort of patients on a treatment with no framework. The health ministry's response was administrative: continue covering the patients still under treatment while the permanent framework is finalised.

What the current arrangement is

ANSM's published position is precise about the mechanism. The transitional phase was extended beyond 31 March 2026 and will end three months after the Haute Autorité de Santé publishes its opinion on its site. Until then, cannabis medicines authorised during the experiment may continue to be prescribed and dispensed by authorised prescribers and pharmacists.

The stated reason is continuity of care: to avoid any interruption of treatment for patients still covered under this transitional framework, pending the establishment of a permanent one. Reporting puts the cohort in the hundreds of patients.

The two documents that unlock everything

• The decrees defining the production and authorisation framework for medical cannabis, notified to the European Commission in 2025 — these let authorised companies move beyond research and development toward market authorisation.
• The Haute Autorité de Santé opinion on therapeutic value and reimbursement, which also starts the three-month clock on the transitional arrangement.

Social security legislation for 2024 provided for a five-year temporary use authorisation issued by ANSM for cannabis-based medicines. The legal instrument exists; the implementing texts and the assessment determine when it can be used.

Why this is worth watching from outside France

France is the largest EU medical cannabis market that does not yet function as one. Whatever framework emerges will shape demand and supplier qualification requirements across the region, and the sequencing — regulatory texts first, health technology assessment second, general prescribing third — is a template other slow-moving member states may follow.

Separately, nothing here touches non-medical policy. Use and possession remain criminal offences in France, handled since 2020 largely through a fixed fine. LeafCurrent will report the decrees and the HAS opinion when they are published, from the official sources rather than from trade commentary.