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Medical Marijuana's 'Catch-22': Limits On Research Hinders Patient Relief
By the time Ann Marie Owen, 61, turned to marijuana to treat her pain, she was struggling to walk and talk. She was also hallucinating. For four years, her doctor prescribed a wide range of opioids for transverse myelitis, a debilitating disease that caused pain, muscle weakness and paralysis. The drugs not only failed to ease her symptoms, they hooked her.
When her home state of New York legalized marijuana for the treatment of select medical ailments, Owens decided it was time to swap pills for pot. But her doctors refused to help. "Even though medical marijuana is legal, none of my doctors were willing to talk to me about it," she says. "They just kept telling me to take opioids."
Although 29 states have legalized marijuana to treat pain and other ailments, the growing number of Americans like Owen who use marijuana and the doctors who treat them are caught in the middle of a conflict in federal and state laws — a predicament that is only worsened by thin scientific data.
Because the federal government considers marijuana a Schedule 1 drug, research on marijuana or its active ingredients is highly restricted and even discouraged in some cases. Underscoring the federal government's position, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar recently pronounced that there was "no such thing as medical marijuana."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @05:42PM (1 child)
Hearst is responsible for this mess. Hearst had vested interests in things which hemp competed with, such as synthetic fiber and wood pulp. So hearst ran an insane disinformation campaign to try to demonize Hemp, in his papers. These manias can take on a life of their own. It is very similar to the anti-masturbation hysteria of the Victorian era which led to circumcision being pushed by Kellogg to punish males for masturbation, leading to the circumcision scam prevelent in america, but thats another story.
As far as the effects of cannibus, its not all that of an enlightening item in my opinion, but they have the enlightening ones like LSD and mushrooms covered too (which also should be decriminalized). Gotta keep the public in the dark spiritually, and make sure they cannot transcend the 3 dimensional prison of physical reality. Cannibus can really help people live normal lives and alleviate suffering shows the contempt the government has for people that they would want to keep people from this medicinal plant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @07:04PM
yes, this is the crux of the issue. that people allow the government to dictate what they can ingest or treat ailments with. it's beyond ridiculous.