A First Person Account about the Need for Medical Cannabis in France

This is the little story of Marie Borrel, a French writer, journalist, and director of a magazine about alternative medicine, who wonders why cannabis continues to be illegal in her country. Despite the political restrictions, she consumed cannabis to provide relief for the devastating secondary effects of chemotherapy during her fight against cancer. Thanks to marijuana, her vomiting, tiredness and pain diminished considerably and her appetite and ability to sleep returned again.

She only needed a week for the effects of the treatment to give way to the benefits of cannabis. Her story is to be found in the book “Médi Cannabis, comment j'ai surmonté mon cancer grace au cannabis” (Medical Cannabis. How I overcame cancer thanks to cannabis), that she wrote. She states that she received support from her family and that both nurses and doctors were understanding with her and never tried to convince her that she should stop using alternative medicine.

Five months after ending treatment, she could not stop thinking about the large number of people that suffer illnesses and who medicate with strong anxiolytics, antidepressants, analgesics and sleeping pills. These ill people are unable to have access to an ancient and effective medical plant that is permitted for medical purposes in many other countries such as Israel, Canada, the United States, and the Czech Republic.

Borrel calls out to French people and explains that the plant is normally used in a supervised clinical environment, with people that suffer specific illnesses. Furthermore, hundreds of researchers from around the world have published positive results about the medical effects of the plant.

Therefore, she believes that science and medicine are evolving much quicker than the attitudes and fears of some people. “Why?” she asks. “Up until now I have not found a satisfactory response. Meanwhile, patients continue to suffer”, she concludes.