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Cannabis has been used for centuries to treat a wide range of medical and psychological conditions. It has been shown to be both safe and effective with an astonishing range of clinical applications.
In the 1930's cannabis was included in twenty-eight prescription medications and had been used safely by thousands of patients.
History
Unfortunately by this time cannabis had become, in the minds of many, associated with recreational drug use. People in positions of power and political influence began campaigning for a ban on cannabis use. They chose to overlook the demonstrated medical benefits of cannabis, focusing only on what they perceived were its negative properties. In 1937 over the objection of the AMA congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act effectively outlawing the use or possession of cannabis in the United States.
For a colorful and informative review of this period you may read The Emperor Has No Clothes by Jack Herer.
Widespread recreational use of cannabis among both college students and military personnel in the 1960's prompted congress to order a scientific review of cannabis. Although top scientists didn't endorse the use of cannabis there was general agreement that the dangers of cannabis use were very exaggerated. One very important myth that was dispelled was that cannabis was a gateway drug for harder drug use. The fact that millions of people used cannabis and didn't go on to harder drug use spoke for itself. No one during that period seemed to be focusing on the medicinal uses of cannabis.
Over the next several years the experience of those who had discovered the medicinal uses of cannabis and of those who were benefiting from its use created mounting pressure to legalize cannabis for medical use.
In 1996 California voters passed proposition 215, The Compassionate Use Act, allowing patients to use, possess, and cultivate cannabis to treat their medical condition with the recommendation of a licensed California physician.
Since its passage tens of thousands of patients are now using and benefiting from cannabis. They are an expanding living testimonial to both the safety and efficacy of medicinal cannabis.
Although cannabis may be used legally for medicinal purposes in thirteen states it is non-the-less still not recognized as having medicinal value by the federal drug administration (FDA) and remains illegal at the federal level. This creates a conflict between the state and federal government and the ramifications of this differing view of cannabis has created uncertainty for both cannabis users and state officials. For the most part individual users have not been targeted by federal authorities.
The FDA has reasoned that all of the medical conditions for which cannabis has been recommended have prescription medications that could be used instead and therefore there is no reason to recommend or legalize cannabis. This position unfortunately overlooks the fact that the majority of medical cannabis patients have used prescription medications and have found that cannabis is superior both in efficacy and tolerability. Many cannabis patients have failed completely with prescription medications and turned to cannabis with excellent outcomes.
Cannabis is not for everyone. Sometimes it is not effective and some patients cannot tolerate it. In this regard it is no different from prescription medications. The fact that it doesn't work for all patients is scant reason to deny it to all the patients for whom it does. If that standard were applied to prescription medications, few if any would be approved. The bias against cannabis in light of what has been learned over the past several years as the ranks of legal cannabis has swelled into the hundreds of thousands, is no longer reasonable. |
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