The US might soon enter into a new era of medicine, after the Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday said it would make it easier for researchers and private companies to grow or obtain marijuana for research.
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DEA released a public report Thursday, where it still considers marijuana a “schedule 1” controlled substance.
On the other hand, Schedule II drugs have a high potential for abuse, but “there is the recognition that they have some medical value as well”, said Dr. J. Michael Bostwick, a professor of psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “At least taking it to a Schedule II would have made it not such a federal crime and would have opened up a whole lot of avenues for patients and everyone else too”.
Twenty-five states, including the state of Nevada and the District of Columbia, have legalized marijuana in some form. Linn says even with standing state laws, the DEA decision will make life for her son Jack harder.
“Marijuana lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision”.
“We applaud the steps taken today by the Obama Administration to remove research barriers that have significantly limited the scientific study of marijuana”. For many years, the University of MS has had a monopoly on that role as the sole DEA-approved provider of marijuana, and researchers have complained that the supply of the drug was grossly inadequate, stymying efforts to establish whether marijuana is an effective treatment for many diseases.
Then, after years of bureaucratic hurdles, it is the National Institute on Drug Abuse that has held the final key to the lock. The hope was that it was reclassified as a Schedule II drug, which is how speed and oxycodone are now scheduled.
Some questions about the decision and what it means.
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“We need those kinds of studies to help us give informed advice to our patients who ask about it now”, he said. “The DEA and the FDA continue to believe that scientifically valid and well-controlled clinical trials conducted under investigational new drug applications are the most appropriate way to conduct research on the medicinal uses of marijuana”. However, marijuana use is still considered an offense under Federal law. Previously many states have legalized medical marijuana for many condition, but after the Thursday decision all kinds of use of marijuana, even if medical, will be perceived as illegal.
