William Lowenstein is director general and a doctor at l'Institut Baron Maurice de Rothschild, Paris.

A very many studies were carried out on this subject in the 70s and 80s. To read them, you'd think that every illness in the world could be cured by cannabis. However, the majority of these studies are not methodologically sound. In this case though, Pain is a very good-quality review, and we do still need to carry out studies on cannabis. Obviously it's no big news that the cannabis molecule has pain-relieving effects. But if the study presents hard evidence of pain-relieving advantages, it shouldn't be ignored.

It's known that cannabis-derived substances present problems for some people who can't handle the psychological effects. So it's necessary to look into the study and compare cannabis with morphine and paracetamol. The problem is that the debate will quickly become political and social when it should remain a medical issue. France is a complicated country.

Cannabis use is not entirely prohibited in France. Doctors can prescribe temporary authorisation under the minister of health, but the process is laborious and tends to take around a month. There have only been 15 cases in the past ten years - so it has to be an essential case. Other countries are more pragmatic. It's considered that if someone's suffering, they should be able to access any medicine that helps them. It's a scientific issue. Politics has nothing to do with it."

Sophie Daout co-founded the movement Jeunesse sans drogue (Youth Without drugs), a French association against drug addiction.  

I fight against drugs in the sense of psychotropic [brain altering] products that destroy people and deprive them of their freedom. But I find it wonderful that cannabis can have therapeutic virtues.  

The risks of taking cannabis in a tablet form to ease pain are not the same as those of smoking a joint in perfectly good health. It's a different measure. It's similar to the difference between heroin and morphine. Of all people who take morphine after a car accident, only 5% are addicted after the treatment. Becoming addicted is all in the head.  

If it helps people and it's prescribed by a doctor, then let's do it! The risk of drug addicts [or people who create illegal drugs] getting hold of this ingredient won't be any greater than with medicines based on codeine.

However, if the pharmaceutical companies haven't marketed it yet, then it must mean that there are other medicines that have the same effect but are cheaper to manufacture."

David, 27, has been smoking cannabis daily for several years.

I've never smoked for a therapeutic reason. But I have noticed that smoking has a good effect on pain, especially for stomach ache and some headaches. Cannabis is the only taboo that wasn't helped by the May 68 riots. We talk about women's rights for example, but not about the 'right to get stoned'. That's a pity."