Bertha Madras, professor of psychobiology at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, has this article in the WaPo with the above title.
Data from 2015 indicate that 30 percent of current cannabis users harbor a use disorder -- more Americans are dependent on cannabis than on any other illicit drug. Yet marijuana advocates have relentlessly pressured the federal government to shift marijuana from Schedule I -- the most restrictive category of drug -- to another schedule or to de-schedule it completely. Their rationale? "States have already approved medical marijuana"; "rescheduling will open the floodgates for research"; and "many people claim that marijuana alone alleviates their symptoms."
Yet unlike drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, "dispensary marijuana" has no quality control, no standardized composition or dosage for specific medical conditions. It has no prescribing information or no high-quality studies of effectiveness or long-term safety. While the FDA is not averse to approving cannabinoids as medicines and has approved two cannabinoid medications, the decision to keep marijuana in Schedule I was reaffirmed in a 2015 federal court ruling. That ruling was correct.
Here are Dr. Madras's five reasons, given as five requirements for rescheduling, none of which is met by "dispensary marijuana."
1. The drug's chemistry must be known and reproducible.
2. There must be adequate safety studies.
3. There must be adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy.
4. The drug must be accepted by well-qualified experts.
5. Scientific evidence must be widely available.
See the article for the explanations of why these criteria are not met.
1. The drug's chemistry must be known and reproducible.
2. There must be adequate safety studies.
3. There must be adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy.
4. The drug must be accepted by well-qualified experts.
5. Scientific evidence must be widely available.
See the article for the explanations of why these criteria are not met.
Kent, do you realize that marijuana's placement on Schedule 1 both formally and functionally has been what principally precludes these five criteria from getting satisfied in the US. Notably, in Israel where concerns about science have be elevated over politics, the situation is MUCH, MUCH different:
http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/3/16/in-israel-medical-marijuana-research-far-from-stuck-in-the-weeds#.VyTS2PkrK70=
I noted the article. I'm not taking a position on it.
I am not asking you to take a position, Kent, but rather am just interested to know if you recognize the catch-22 that current federal law creates for any effort to effectively demonstrate the potential medical efficacy of marijuana.