Federal policies do not reflect a factual or balanced assessment of marijuana’s use as a medicant. Representative McKinney and I hope the Council will take a close and careful look at this issue. ![]() Physicians are often forced to choose between their ethical responsibilities to the patient and their legal liabilities to federal bureaucrats. The medical prohibition does not prevent seriously ill patients from employing marijuana it simply deprives them of medical supervision and access to a regulated medical substance. We believe licensed physicians are competent to employ marijuana, and patients have a right to obtain marijuana legally, under medical supervision, from a regulated source. On Sept 16, 1981, Representative Stewart McKinney and I introduced legislation designed to end bureaucratic interference in the use of marijuana as a medicant. ![]() This outdated federal prohibition is corrupting the intent of the state laws and depriving thousands of glaucoma and cancer patients of the medical care promised them by their state legislatures. Federal law, however, continues to define marijuana as a drug “with no accepted medical use,” and federal agencies continue to prohibit physician-patient access to marijuana. Since 1978, 32 states have abandoned the federal prohibition to recognize legislatively marijuana’s important medical properties. ![]() All too often the hysteria that attends public debate over marijuana’s social abuse compromises a clear appreciation for this critical distinction. Not only does the report outline evidence of marijuana’s potential harms, but it distinguishes this concern from the legitimate issue of marijuana’s important medical benefits. The American Medical Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs should be commended for its report, “Marijuana: Its Health Hazards and Therapeutic Potential” (1981 246:1823). Here’s what Newt Gingrich wrote to the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1982: ![]() Well, well, well… Look who was PRO-medical marijuana-actually went out on a limb for it-way back before he wanted to behead people and cut off their hands for possessing it…
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