There’s currently, and is going to be for a good while, debate surrounding the therapeutic use of cannabis and the chemical components which may be produced from it. There are numerous cogent and rational arguments meant for the plant’s medicinal properties, and there are always a handful of compelling reasons for allowing people to select this treatment path instead of any other. The biggest obstacle facing the proponents of medical marijuana is a frustrating tangle of politics.
In the United States of America, at least at a federal level, cannabis is illegal. It is prohibited to develop, possess, sell, or buy the plant. Stiff penalties are routinely imposed for the majority of infractions of the prohibition against the plant.
Individual state governments might have enacted their own legislation which decriminalizes or even legalizes the substance, but federal law is still paramount if the situation comes up Dispensary Auburn WA. Most of the time, federal agencies are neither equipped nor motivated to do state level police force, and so states with less strict laws governing cannabis are essentially safe places for patients.
At the main of the problem is the perceived therapeutic value of cannabis. Everything hinges upon the determination of actual medicinal benefit. The prohibition against cannabis is codified in the Drug Enforcement Agency’s scheduling of it, which will be on the basis of the potential health advantages of a substance.
Many people take problem with the scheduling and its results. They ask why cocaine and anabolic steroids are believed to have greater medicinal value than cannabis. They notice that the more proprietary and complicated the names get, the less of an issue the Drug Enforcement Agency has with them. While this may be a small wild conspiracy theory to see some kind of collusion between regulations enforcement agencies and the major pharmaceutical companies, you can find people who maintain that something very much of this sort goes on.
So the knot is tied. It is not possible allowing patients to select cannabis as remedy option as the plant is illegal. The plant is illegal since it is known as to have no significant medicinal value. There’s research which contradicts this claim, but it’s not considered compelling enough evidence by policy makers.
Interestingly enough, the question of the legal status of cannabis may turn out to be resolved for more economic and practical reasons. The social obstacle to mainstream acceptance of cannabinoids is closely tied to the illicit nature of the plant. This is a facet of the so called War On Drugs started many years ago and which has proven incredibly expensive and completely ineffective. Abandoning this “war” would ease everyone’s problems, from the federal accountants to the chemotherapy patients who would like to stop vomiting for a while.
As more and more evidence mounts to counter the Drug Enforcement Agency’s assertion that cannabis does not have any medical benefit, public opinion changes. The states which may have enacted medical marijuana legislation have not degenerated into mindless, drug addled chaos. There’s an increasing feeling this movement is important and compassionate, and so it will succeed in the end.