Pony Party: Medical Marijuana

The American College of Physicians recently published a position paper in support of medical marijuana.

Marijuana has been smoked for its medicinal properties for centuries. Preclinical, clinical, and anecdotal reports suggest numerous potential medical uses for marijuana. Although the indications for some conditions have been well documented, less information is available about other potential medical uses. There’s so much surrounding the world of medical marijuana that people are interested in. With this help of this weed blog, you can find out more information about how marijuana can play a large part in improving the health of many. Even taking the time to visit a michigan dispensary (where the use of medical marijuana is legal) can help you figure out if the use of medical marijuana is worth it. You never know though if you don’t try or at least look into the idea of it. The more people who require the use of medical marijuana, the more companies identify the gap in the market. This then increases the number of dispensaries that are available around the states, allowing people to buy weed online and offline provided that they have the correct permissions. But this can only happen if medical marijuana becomes legalised. It’s a topic that is quite controversial, but it is one that is pretty interesting to look into. Especially with the help of cannabis public relations companies, this could be the starting point of spreading positive messages about medical marijuana when it comes to health benefits.

Additional research is needed to further clarify the therapeutic value of cannabinoids and determine optimal routes of administration. Unfortunately, research expansion has been hindered by a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research-grade marijuana, and the debate over legalization. ACP believes the science on medical marijuana should not be obscured or hindered by the debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana for general use. In this paper the College lays out a series of positions on research into, and the use of, marijuana as medicine.

In the paper the ACP expresses the following five positions:

Position 1: ACP supports programs and funding for rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and the publication of such findings. (…)

Position 2: ACP encourages the use of nonsmoked forms of THC that have proven therapeutic value.

Position 3: ACP supports the current process for obtaining federal research-grade cannabis.

Position 4: ACP urges review of marijuana’s status as a schedule I controlled substance and its reclassification into a more appropriate schedule, given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana’s safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions.

Position 5: ACP strongly supports exemption from federal criminal prosecution; civil liability; or professional sanctioning, such as loss of licensure or credentialing, for physicians who prescribe or dispense medical marijuana in accordance with state law. Similarly, ACP strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.

Download the full paper (PDF)

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