Why is marijuana so special that we're expected to make an exception for it and not treat it as we would any other drug? Study it. Trial it. Publish peer-reviewed reports. List drug interactions, dosages, frequency. Get FDA approval. Have a physician prescribe it through a pharmacy. AS WE DO WITH EVERY OTHER DRUG. What is wrong with that? I'd really like to know.
Great idea. Now get the federal government to allow those studies, and permit researchers to obtain marijuana to use for those studies. One neurologist in California who specializes in MS told me he was visited by federal agents in his clinic. They warned him that despite the California law, if he prescribed marijuana for any of his MS patients, he'd be arrested. Good climate to do clinical studies, huh?
This whole thing strikes me as ridiculous. I agree with you - treat marijuana as any other regulated drug, do the investigations, and use it for appropriate indications. I find it very wrong to deny effective treatment to patients because someone associates marijuana with an undesirable lifestyle.
They're not? They allowed this one, did they not? Aren't we discussing a marijuana study allowed (and funded, by the way) by the federal government?
Geez Louise.
"They warned him that despite the California law, if he prescribed marijuana for any of his MS patients, he'd be arrested."
I doubt that. First of all, medical marijuana is not prescribed by physicians -- it is a written recommendation placed in the patient's file. Second, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a physician may not be arrested by anyone for making a recommendation for medical marijuana, nor will he lose his license. Third, marijuana is ineffective at treating symptoms of MS. More than likely, it was the patient's idea to use marijuana not the doctor's. Fourth, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society does not recognize smoked marijuana as medicine.
"I find it very wrong to deny effective treatment to patients"
I understand. But find for me one study or one organization that says that smoked marijuana is an effective treatment for anything that other drugs don't do better or with less side effects than smoking.
What in the hell is the urgency to get this drug approved as medicine? It cures nothing. Every single possible application for this drug is already being addressed by at least 10 other tried and true, FDA approved drugs. Glaucoma? Nausea? MS? AIDS? Cancer? What, we have nothing for these diseases?
Medical marijuana is a scam. The sick and dying are being used a pawns in an effort to get marijuana made legal for recreational use.