The smoke of marijuana in the U.S. is now legal for amateur function infive states , and for medicative purposes in morethan 20 . With the tide obviously turning , it seems bizarre that the use of pot for scientific study is smother by miles of blood-red tape , especially establish thelistof ailments it shows promise in treating . But encouragingly , it finally seems that these outdated restriction are set to change , as the White Houseannouncestoday that it will be updating policy on inquiry using mourning band , relaxing some of the tight regulation .
Considering that so many state have already legalized medical marijuana , it ’s surprising that the command on using it in healing trials have stay so rigorous . Since 1999 , the drug has been tag as aSchedule 1drug – putting it in the same family as diacetylmorphine and LSD – meaning that it has “ no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse ” and is one of “ the most dangerous drug . ”
This all means that if any research worker wants to get their hands on any marijuana for use in clinical studies , they have to jump through anotherhoop of bureaucracyand undergo a freestanding Public Health Service review . This process has beencriticized equallyacross the board by researcher and lawmakers and is generally accepted to have stifled any studies into the possible benefit – or harm – that comes from fume the plant . Getting approval can be a unconscious process years in the making . And it ’s not cheap , either .
By removing the requisite to go through a Public Health Service review , it ’s desire that this will alleviate and race up additional inquiry of the drug . Theonly officialgovernmental supplier of marijuana , grow since the 1970s by the University of Mississippi , has already started to supercharge production due to an increased demand for inquiry - ground level pot over the last few year . It look like this demand might be position to sky garden rocket even further .
With evidence building that smoke marijuana can aid multitude endure with many different health problems , from alleviating pain and stiffness in those suffer from MS to deoxidize the prejudicial impact of post - traumatic accent upset , this shift in insurance policy from the government is expect to be welcomed across the research community .