The acceptance of marijuana is becoming more and more normal across the world. Many states and several countires have already legislated marijuana either recreationally or medicinally.
The U.S. still has marijuana illegal on a federal level but when the Surgeon General thinks it is time to reclassify the drug, there is no telling how long this may last.
At the end of last year, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams called on the federal government to rethink marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I substance.
According to Adams, medically, marijuana should be studied like any other pain relief drug. He also believes that both health and criminal justice policies need to be re-examined as they pertain to cannabis drug classification.
“The relevance of the Surgeon General’s call to reschedule cannabis cannot be understated,” says Dr. Mark Rosenfeld, CEO of ANANDA Scientific.
Rosenfeld added, “The chemistry found only in cannabis plants can provide relief across an incredible array of adverse health states. It does this with minimal side effects and with the prospect of being eminently cost-effective in its use.”
He adds, “The medicinal use of cannabis today has its roots in the 1960s, when Israeli scientists began studies on its unique chemistry. A government program for administering medical cannabis has been in place there for 12 years, and doctors do not hesitate to encourage its use as an effective pharmaceutical alternative. Meanwhile, the United States remains regrettably behind because of its draconian and antiquated anti-cannabis laws. In no small way due to the regulatory and legal nightmare defining the situation for medical cannabis in the U.S., the science supporting its medicinal efficacy remains tentative. But reversing the excessively harsh and prohibitive laws for cannabis in the United States remains essential for making cannabis chemistry real human medicine. It is important to realize that states have approved the medicinal use of cannabis through legislative processes, not scientific or medical ones. That has gotten in the way of scientists determining with certainty the therapeutic impact of cannabis and thus of patients wishing to beneficially use it.”
