French Court Removes Penalty to Patient Who Consumed Medical Cannabis

Frenchman Sebastien Béguerie was sentenced to 15 days in prison after 19 marijuana plants were found last February in his house in Marseilles. Now, although the young man of 31 was accused by a court, no penalty shall be imposed on him after demonstrating that he had been using the herb for medicinal purposes for his mental problems.

Béguerie, who suffers from hyperactivity, attention deficit and bipolar disorders, began to medicate with cannabis in 2011, while studying a master’s degree in the Netherlands. When he returned to his home country, he realized that the chemical treatments that he had to resign himself to, made him look like "a zombie": he noticed that his health waned gradually and remained unable to work. This is why he decided to take marijuana again.

With the aid of his father, he first wanted to get the help of a pharmacy in the Netherlands, but the product was too expensive. So, in October 2014 he began to grow cannabis at his own home. After some legal inconveniences, the defendant supported his defence in court on all the prescriptions of medical cannabis that Dutch, Luxembourger and French doctors had prescribed to him for therapeutic reasons.

Béguerie is no ordinary patient. He has been driving several cannabis initiatives and he has founded the Francophone Union of Medical Cannabinoids. His lawyer stated that, to her knowledge, this is the first time in France that such a decision is taken in a case of medical cannabis culture to treat mental problems.

The news has been received positively in a country that is very restrictive in this area. In fact, although in 2013 the medical use of cannabis was recognized, it was restricted to patients with multiple sclerosis and today it is not available for them yet. This case is new step forward for an ever more committed Europe to those patients who need cannabis to live a normal life