PETIT AMPITHEATER 14:45-15:45
- How can we narrow the window between the political decision to allow medical cannabis and actual access for patients?
- Should patients have a right to cultivate cannabis for personal use?
- How to secure access to medical cannabis for patients travelling outside the Schengen area but remaining within European territory?
- Are government de-stigmitisation campaigns needed to educate the public about the use of medical cannabis?
- Can France become a model for medical cannabis insurance?
CHAIR: Aurélien Bernard
Aurélien Bernard is a French-born cannabis entrepreneur. He is the founder of the first French cannabis media company Newsweed, and is a specialist in global cannabis news. He is a pro-cannabis advocate and works with French associations to reform marijuana laws.
Mado Gilanton
Mado Gilanton is President of Association APAISER. Mado is a member of the Rare Disease Alliance and a member of the governance of the Chiari Syringo-MAVEM Reference Centre. At 64, she suffers from syringomyelia and chiari, two rare pathologies of the spinal cord and cerebellum. At the Scientific Board of APAISER S & C she developed a study on the medical use of cannabis. She presented to the ANSM CSST on “the real life of patients who use cannabis.”
Dr. Amine Benyamina
Amine Benyamina is an addiction psychiatrist at the University Hospital Paul Brousse in Villejuif. He is also a professor at the Faculty of Medicine Paris XI. He is responsible for the Centre for Addiction Research and Treatment. In addition, Amine is Chief Editor of the Alcoholism and Addiction Journal and administrator of the French Society of Alcoholism (SFA), the French Association of Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology (AFPBN). He is the author of more than 50 referenced scientific articles dealing with therapeutic, psychiatric and addictive comorbidities.
Sébastien Cotte
Sébastien Cotte became actively involved in the field of medical cannabis in 2013 while seeking alternative treatments for his son Jagger, who suffers from a rare terminal mitochondrial disease. In 2014, the family immigrated to the US to access medical cannabis oil for Jagger.
Sébastien is co-founder of Georgia’s Hope, a parent group that helped pass several medical cannabis laws in the state of Georgia. He is the national business and education director for the Flowering Hope Foundation, on the board of directors of American Medical Refugees, and Georgia action group leader for Americans with Safe Access. He also represents his son in the groundbreaking federal cannabis lawsuit currently being heard at the second court of appeals in New York City.
Michèle Peyron
Michèle Peyron is a member of Parliament for the 9th district of Seine-et-Marne and a member La République en Marche. Previously, she was a private sector executive and held positions in accounting, corporate management and HR. She is part of the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. President of the Study Group on the fight against addictions since 2018, she works in particular on cannabis (therapeutic or adult use) and screens. She also sits on the High Council for Children and Adolescents, in which the issue of addictions (especially screen) is important.
