Key Takeaways
- France’s medical cannabis program faces delays; National Assembly member Guillaume Garot asks the Health Ministry about overdue decrees.
- Two crucial decrees are pending: one for the regulatory framework and another for reimbursement evaluation, causing scheduled hearings to be postponed.
- The December 31, 2026 deadline threatens continuity of care for patients currently in the experimental program; Garot seeks government assurances.
- Approximately 100,000 eligible patients await a permanent system, but regulatory uncertainty pushes many to seek alternative treatments.
- If decrees are published, companies must prepare for compliance, as product authorization and patient care decisions hinge on forthcoming evaluations.
France’s medical cannabis program has been five years in the making, and it still isn’t finished. On Tuesday, National Assembly member Guillaume Garot submitted a written question to the Minister of Health, Families, Autonomy and Disabled Persons, asking a question that patients and companies alike have been asking for months: where are the decrees?
Garot, who represents Mayenne’s first constituency for the Socialistes et apparentés group, pointed to Article 78 of the social security financing law for 2024 (law n° 2023-1250 of December 26, 2023). That article established a permanent framework for accessing cannabis-based medicines, including a five-year renewable authorization from the ANSM (France’s national medicines safety agency) and an evaluation by the Haute Autorité de Santé, or HAS, to determine eligibility for reimbursement by national health insurance.
Nearly three years after that law passed, neither implementing decree has been published.
What Did Guillaume Garot Ask the Health Ministry?
Garot’s written question lays out the holdup in plain terms. The government previously confirmed that the decree governing the regulatory framework for cannabis-based medicines was notified to the European Commission in March 2025 and validated by the Conseil d’État in January 2026. A second decree, covering evaluation methods and potential reimbursement, still hasn’t appeared.
That gap is important because the HAS cannot begin its formal evaluation without the second decree in hand. As a direct result, the agency postponed the hearings it had scheduled for October 20 and 21, 2026. Garot’s question notes this postponement explicitly, though a separate Business of Cannabis report citing the consultancy Augur Associates places the postponement in September, a minor discrepancy worth flagging but not one that changes the substance of the delay.
Garot put three direct questions to the ministry: When will it publish the outstanding decrees? What is the timetable for HAS evaluations and first prescriptions? And if that timetable slips, what steps will the government take to guarantee continuity of care for patients beyond December 31, 2026?. As of this writing, the health ministry has not issued a public response.
Why Does the December 31st Deadline Matter for Patients?
The December 31st date isn’t arbitrary. That date is when continuity protections expire for patients already in France’s medical cannabis experiment. These patients joined under the original pilot program, which launched in 2021. Lawmakers have extended the program several times while the permanent framework remains stalled.
Enrollment in that pilot has fallen sharply, from roughly 1,849 patients in September 2024 to an estimated 700 more recently, according to Augur Associates’ October 2026 white paper. That decline highlights years of administrative uncertainty, restricted prescriber access, and the kind of regulatory limbo that tends to push patients toward other treatments out of necessity rather than preference.
Meanwhile, patient organizations estimate that roughly 100,000 people in France could be eligible for medical cannabis once the permanent system opens, with some parliamentary discussion citing figures between 150,000 and 300,000 patients described as being in therapeutic impasse. These are patients who have exhausted conventional treatment options and are waiting on a framework that technically exists in law but not yet in practice.
If the decrees remain unpublished and the HAS evaluation keeps slipping, patients currently in the experimental program face a cutoff with no confirmed bridge to the permanent system, and new patients remain locked out entirely.
What Happens Once the Reimbursement Decree Clears Conseil d’État?
Augur Associates’ October 2026 regulatory paper, which Business of Cannabis cited, reports that the outstanding reimbursement decree has reached the Conseil d’État for review. The government has not publicly confirmed this, so treat it as informed market intelligence rather than fact.
Augur’s paper describes a sequence that still has several steps left: Conseil d’État review, ministerial signature, formal publication, and then the HAS evaluation and reimbursement opinion. Only after that opinion lands can products actually move toward authorization. Augur suggests a first-quarter 2027 start for initial prescriptions “remains plausible,” but stresses that timeline is contingent on each of those steps happening without further delay.
The firm’s framing is worth noting directly: “Publication will not mark the beginning of the market-entry process. It will mark the point at which companies can move from preparation to formal regulatory submissions.” In other words, even a published decree is a starting gun, not a finish line.
What Does the Permanent Framework Actually Cover?
In our earlier reporting here at Beard Bros Media, we drew on statements from France’s Minister of Health in mid-2026 to outline what the permanent system should include once it’s operational. The therapeutic scope, presented at Cannabis Europa Paris in February 2026, covers refractory neuropathic pain, pharmacoresistant epilepsy, painful spasticity linked to multiple sclerosis or other central nervous system disorders, refractory oncology symptoms, and advanced palliative situations with symptoms that haven’t responded to standard treatment.
The framework will likely authorize three cannabinoid profiles: THC-dominant, a balanced THC/CBD combination, and CBD-dominant formulations. It will probably exclude raw dried flower. For fast-acting formats, regulators will likely limit options to secure, tamper-proof, single-dose cartridges. Inhaled products will probably require a dedicated, CE-marked medical device instead of combustion, which remains a cultural and regulatory sticking point in France.
This product structure means that once the decrees do land, companies won’t simply be able to ship existing flower products into the French market. Compliance will mean pharmaceutical-grade manufacturing and device compatibility from day one.
What Does This Mean for Patients and the Cannabis Industry?
For patients, Garot’s question puts a parliamentary spotlight on a problem that has, until now, mostly played out in ministry statements and trade press. It forces the health ministry to respond, on the record, about what happens to people currently relying on the experimental program if the permanent framework isn’t ready by year’s end.
For international medical cannabis companies watching the French market, the delay complicates planning around product authorization, device certification, and supply chain buildout. Germany’s experience, where early movers in pharmacy distribution and device certification captured significant market share once that country’s MedCanG Act took effect in April 2024, suggests the companies positioning now, even before France’s decrees are final, are the ones likely to benefit most once the system does open.
Whether that happens on the timeline Augur describes, or whether France slips further past its own deadlines as it has repeatedly since 2021, depends largely on what the health ministry says in response to Garot’s question. No response has been published yet.
Frequently Asked Questions
On October 27, 2026, Guillaume Garot asked the health ministry when it will publish the two remaining decrees for France’s permanent medical cannabis framework. He also asked when HAS evaluations and first prescriptions will begin, and how patients will continue treatment after December 31, 2026 if deadlines are missed.
The HAS can’t start evaluating cannabis-based medicines until the second implementing decree, covering evaluation methods and reimbursement, is published. Its absence has postponed the hearings planned for October 20 and 21, 2026.
On that date, continuity protections for patients enrolled in France’s experimental medical cannabis program will expire. Garot’s question specifically asks the government what provisions it plans to guarantee continued treatment if the permanent framework isn’t operational by then, but the ministry has not yet responded publicly.
No start date is confirmed. Augur Associates says a first-quarter 2027 launch “remains plausible,” but that depends on the Conseil d’État finishing its review, the minister signing, the government publishing the decree, and the HAS delivering its evaluation on time. None of these steps has been confirmed.
A December 2023 French law established a permanent framework for cannabis-based medicines. It provides for five-year renewable authorizations from the ANSM and a reimbursement review by the Haute Autorité de Santé.
