According to former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb, it is time for the federal government to regulate marijuana sensibly so that it can access the medical value of the drug.

The former FDA commissioner’s statement was obtained by POLITICO.

Gottlieb said at the Pellegrino Award luncheon at Samford University’s School of Pharmacy. “If we believe that cannabis has medicinal potential, we should enable suitable research rather than bypass these norms through wholesale legalization.”

According to Gottlieb, any relaxation of marijuana’s legal status should be for the goal of conducting research, “not to support recreational use.”

“Cannabis has been around a long time. There’s been plenty of time to develop rigorous science to affirm its purported medicinal benefits,” Gottlieb told researchers at the conference.

However he said that evidence was “thin” — and the existing research would never pass muster with the Food and Drug Administration.

“These are addressable challenges. Congress can take specific action to enable easier access to cannabis that’s appropriate for medical research,” Gottlieb also has said.

“Ultimately, we need to move past the social stigma around cannabis and address these complex public health and regulatory issues objectively.”


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