Doctors group backs medical marijuana

[Jess Stone]

Doctors group backs medical marijuana

American College of Physicians urges government to rethink prohibition

 

WASHINGTON - A leading U.S. doctors group has endorsed using marijuana for medical purposes, urging the government to roll back a prohibition on using it to treat patients and supporting studies into its medical applications.

 

The American College of Physicians, the second-largest doctors group in the United States, issued a policy statement on medical marijuana this week after it was approved by its governing body, the group said on Friday.

 

The group cited evidence that marijuana is valuable in treating severe weight loss associated with AIDS, and nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients.

"Additional research is needed to clarify marijuana's therapeutic properties and determine standard and optimal doses and routes of delivery. Unfortunately, research expansion has been hindered by a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research-grade marijuana and the debate over legalization," the group said.

 

The Philadelphia-based group, founded in 1915, is made up of 124,000 doctors who treat adults.

 

"The richness of modern medicine is to carefully evaluate new treatments. Marijuana has been in a special category because of, I suppose, its abuses and other concerns," Dr. David Dale, the group's president and a University of Washington professor of medicine, said in a phone interview.

 

David Murray, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's chief scientist, said, "The science should be kept open. There should be more research. We should continue to investigate."

 

The policy statement said, "ACP encourages the use of nonsmoked forms of THC (the main psychoactive element in marijuana) that have proven therapeutic value." It also backed research into additional therapeutic uses of marijuana.

 

The government should review marijuana's status as a so-called schedule I controlled substance, alongside such drugs as LSD and heroin, given scientific evidence of its safety and efficacy for some medical conditions, the doctors group said.

 

It called for exempting doctors who prescribe or dispense medical marijuana in accordance with state law from federal criminal prosecution and other actions. It also urged protection from criminal penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.

 

A dozen states have laws allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. But supporters of medical marijuana accuse the federal government of undermining those state laws by having Drug Enforcement Administration agents raid medical marijuana providers.

 

Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which urges legal and regulated sales of marijuana, said, "This statement by America's second-largest doctors group demolishes the myth that the medical community doesn't support medical marijuana."

 

"The ACP's statement smashes a number of other myths, including the claims that adequate substitutes are available or that marijuana is unsafe for medical use," Kampia added.

Copyright 2008 Reuters.

 

source ....... MSNBC

 

This is a pretty BIG deal IMO ... Jess

[freddie]

This is a pretty BIG deal IMO

 

I agree, this could be very significant. You would imagine doctors world wide would have contact with each other through associations and various medical journals e.t.c. If some doctors group is supporting this you would expect others to take notice. Hopefully.

[gouger]

Doctors groups or medical associations have been supporting these ways .. for a long time .. governments and police remain resolute.. but Law.. Barristers and the like are taking their own stance. As long as you are not doing it for money..

 

We all should know the story well of why MaryJane was made illegal .. it is all over the net.

 

Remember that the same reasons still exist and the corporation has only gotten richer and more powerful. Marijuana is due to stay where it is legally until we can convince Dupont, Monsanto, Rupert Murdoch.. and the like: That they would be better off changing back.. climate change and all that .. temporary carbon storage .. carbon savings .. forest loss savings.. biofuels.. etc., will all occur the instant they change their focus.

Edited February 19, 2008 by gouger

[Frazz]

For sure this is a great positive step for medical users to be applauded , but its of no support or encouragement for recreational smokers / growers ...

the most the government would do is license Parmacutecal Companies to research and grow their own genetically modify version of Cannabis for profit, and you can bet ya bottom dollar they will do their utmost to remove the psychoactive properties currently within Cannabis ... all this will possibly even further isolate the recreational user as an outcast law-breaking 'criminal' ...

 

[gouger]

I don't see it that way.. I see that marijuana is a wholesome type drug and that isolating cannabinoids will only render them useless. We are the experts in production.. thus I believe it is in the governments best interests to hire the experts.

[freddie]

the most the government would do is license Parmacutecal Companies to research and grow their own genetically modify version of Cannabis for profit

Why do you think that? This is not the way it has happened in the U.S.A. There are plenty of medical users in I think 11 states in America who are growing and using cannabis. Drug companies are not involved. You can go and buy pot if you have medical reasons. Even "elite" clones are sold.

[Guest niall]

I see that marijuana is a wholesome type drug and that isolating cannabinoids will only render them useless. We are the experts in production.. thus I believe it is in the governments best interests to hire the experts.

 

Whole-plant cannabis is synergistic, but isolated cannabinoids and other actives are not useless - there will be many thousands of applications for cannabis based/derived medicine. I'm all for the "pharmaceuticalisation" (sp?) of cannabis, we need as many different molecules that excite and inhibit cannabinoid receptors as we can dream up!

 

The cannabinoid system is THE regulatory trigger for all of the body's major systems - nervous system, immune system, digestive sytem, reproductive system, cardiovascular system.. it's all maintained in a homeostatic balance by our endogenous cannabinoids. What we've observed so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Many different types of disease are caused or exacerbated by an imbalance in our regulatory system, and unfortunately many people under or overproduce endo-cannabinoids and so need supplementation or an inhibitor to return to a normal, healthy balance.

 

Whole-plant cannabis does much of this, but perhaps it doesn't do everything that we need? We don't know, so I fully support research and production of isolated and synthetic cannabinoid agonists and antagonists.

 

HOWEVER, I reserve the right to make use of whole-plant cannabis as I see fit - to make use of this amazing, safe herb as we have done for millenia. Anyone who tries to take away my right to this plant, to force me to use pharmaceutical products, will lose. I may make use of synthetics and extracts, or I may not - that's a decision for each person to make on their own. But they should be researched and made available to those that need them.

[pipeman]

I tend to think cannabis products from pharmaceutical companies will be bad for our cause

 

1. There is no need to isolate chemical compounds of the plant. Almost everyone who wants to use cannabis wants to use the plant as is. There is no problem to solve here and therefore cannabis research by pharmaceutical companies is bunk. It is simply a mechanism to make money off something that people should be allowed to grow for free. I have read on other forums some of the medicinal canna products available now are insanely expensive, to the point that they are simply not affordable for someone living on an average working wage.

 

2. It will weaken the legalisation and medicinal marijuana arguments. If canna products become available at the chemist what reason could there possibly be to legalise the plant in its natural form? Cannabis will receive the same treatment as opium, which for the average recreational user, and a lot of medicinal users, will be no better than the situation we have now.

[Guest niall]

I tend to think cannabis products from pharmaceutical companies will be bad for our cause

 

1. There is no need to isolate chemical compounds of the plant.

 

Not true, isolated cannabinoids have their place in medicine just as synergistic whole-plant cannabis does, and you contradict yourself in the very next sentence:

 

Almost everyone who wants to use cannabis wants to use the plant as is.

 

 

2. It will weaken the legalisation and medicinal marijuana arguments.

 

I strongly disagree, if anything it proves our arguments were right and that cannabinoids are an effective medicine. The difference simply becomes the delivery mechanism and the cannabinoid profile of each - if whole-plant cannabis can be used safely and achieve the same outcomes, our case is made once and for all.

 

If canna products become available at the chemist what reason could there possibly be to legalise the plant in its natural form?

 

You've already suggested one of the major reasons:

 

some of the medicinal canna products available now are insanely expensive, to the point that they are simply not affordable

 

Whole-plant cannabis is safe, effective and cheap. Other reasons include industrial applications for the rest of the plant (hemp etc.); environmental reasons (soil health, erosion, salination, pesticides and herbicides, water); localised cultivation will ensure sufficient access in regional and remote areas such as Third World countries and isolated communities; whole-plant's synergistic properties and the fact that it includes other medicinal compounds other than cannabinoids (volatile terpenoids, flavinoids, others?).

 

Cannabis will receive the same treatment as opium, which for the average recreational user, and a lot of medicinal users, will be no better than the situation we have now.

 

Unlike opium, cannabis has many, many active ingredients. And yet we still grow opium legally under the UN conventions and use this as our source for medicinal opium. In fact opium enjoys a respectable position - I *WISH* cannabis enjoyed the same treatment as opium. There's no reason for it not to be legally grown and regulated by Governments around the world - in fact the UN treaties specify exactly how and why this "must" be done. Must! We are violating the UN treaties by not making cannabis available for medical use! Cannabis would be required to follow the exact same model as opium, which specifies how it must be controlled. It's up to Governments whether this includes personal cultivation as it is a sovereign/Constitutional matter, the UN simply requires that a national body be setup to monitor and regulate the industry.

 

There's no real need to grow opium as it's available to those who require it. However we can't really compare the two given that the opiates are extremely addictive and dangerous, cannabis is neither.

[pipeman]

You've already suggested one of the major reasons:

 

I know the reasons ffs. My point is that after canna products are made legally available the decriminalisation of personal cultivation will be harder to achieve, and perhaps more strictly enforced now that corporate revenue and taxes are at stake.

 

I *WISH* cannabis enjoyed the same treatment as opium

 

you're an idiot then.

 

"law reform" to make canna products legal will not do anything except create yet another revenue stream from the poor to the rich.