Nine years ago, Kheira was operated on for breast cancer. Nerves are then severed and since suffering constantly accompanies it. “It’s like taking a stab and then it goes all the way down my arm. Tingling, numbness in my arm I almost can’t use it actually ” explains the 64-year-old woman.

First patient of the experiment

And nothing appeases it… Medicines, physiotherapy, pain relief patches, the doctors have tried everything. For Kheira, now exhausted, it is the therapeutic impasse.

But she is driven by the hope of a new treatment… She is the first patient of the Institut Curie to integrate an unprecedented experiment in France… That of medical cannabis.

Very strict supervision

The framework is very strict as the substance is controversial. “In therapeutic cannabis there are two molecules: the CBD molecule which has more an anxiolytic action and which is authorized in France. And there is THC which has more of a psychotropic action which is completely prohibited to date in France.

You still have to be very precise and very framed at the legal level since it is a narcotic and the idea also of this experiment is to ensure that there is no drift or diversion of the product “ details Dr Céline Laouisset, pain doctor at the Institut Curie in Paris.

An oil to ingest

Thanks to a secure prescription, Kheira will be able to collect her medication from the hospital every 28 days. Medicinal cannabis comes in the form of an oil that you can ingest. This experiment will last 24 months, 3,000 patients will be included in one of the 200 reference centers.

A protocol piloted by the National Medicines Safety Agency, awaited for several years. At the end of the experiment, the findings will be presented to the government, which will decide whether or not to generalize the use of medical cannabis.