Does smoking marijuana really have medical benefits?
The Obama administration may have eased federal policy on marijuana enforcement, but the experts are still debating whether the drug has all the medical properties that proponents claim.
Two new stories in the NYT and the WSJ lay out the basics:
In a nutshell, there’s not enough scientific evidence that pot’s medical uses are valid. Studies show that smoking marijuana can improve nausea in cancer patients and others suggest that it help patients with neurological problems such as multiple sclerosis, the NYT reports. However, the story goes on to say:
But there is no good evidence that legalizing the smoking of marijuana is needed to provide these effects. The Food and Drug Administration in 1985 approved Marinol, a prescription pill of marijuana’s active ingredient, T.H.C. Although a few small-scale studies done decades ago suggest that smoked marijuana may prove effective when Marinol does not, no conclusive research has confirmed this finding.
Access to marijuana is increasing nationwide. New Jersey’s governor just signed a medical marijuana bill into law on Monday, adding that state to 13 others with similar laws and down the road in Washington, there’s a bill to allow some dispensaries in the district.
Maryland has a strange setup with a little-known law that while forbids medical use, could open the door for it one day, advocates hope.
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