Alap Naik Desai
The DEA appears to have reversed its staunch opposition to smoking marijuana. The regulator has, for the first time ever, approved smoking marijuana as legitimate medical research, which might make it easy for medical practitioners to prescribe smoking weed as a line of treatment. Currently, the trial is restricted to PTSD, but if the results are promising, it could open up multiple possibilities.
After strongly denying the possibility of considering marijuana as a viable alternative to chemical-based medicines, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) appears to have softened its stand. The agency approved a clinical trial that judges the efficacy of smoking marijuana in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The test is restricted to American military veterans.
Quite a few trials have been conducted in the past to study the medical benefits offered by marijuana and cannabis extracts like cannabidiol. However, this is the first time that the DEA has approved the tests which involve the use of marijuana plant itself. The primary purpose of the test is to check if the marijuana plant can be used in the development of a legal medical drug.
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is conducting the trials using a $2.2 million grant from Colorado’s state health department. Incidentally, it was the DEA that had so far prevented MAPS from using pot in their trials. The association had already secured clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration way back in 2011 and from U.S. Public Health Service in 2014, but it was the DEA that was holding out, until now.
While the trial is restricted to judging the efficacy of smoking marijuana to treat PTSD, a lot is riding on the trial’s success, feel marijuana advocates who have long battled with the DEA to get weed approved as an organic or natural alternative to chemical-based painkillers or pain management medicines.
For quite some time, marijuana proponents have strongly urged the relevant government agencies to consider the use of marijuana for multiple life-threatening ailments, which necessitate the ingestion of powerful pain medicines that tend to have lot of side effects.
Fortunately, 24 states have now legalized medical marijuana, but quite a few do not approve marijuana to be smoked. Many states have only approved a few other formats like gels, lotions, pills, and such, but the smokable variety is still banned.
DEA has long resisted even the concept of marijuana being considered as medicine. It has strongly denied the medicinal potential of pot. In fact, merely six months back, DEA head Chuck Rosenberg had tossed aside the concept of medical marijuana, saying it was a joke, reported CBS News,
“What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal—because it’s not,” he said. “If you talk about smoking the leaf of marijuana—which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana—it has never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine.”However, this week’s approval clearly indicates the DEA has reversed its stand. In fact, earlier this month, the agency confirmed it was considering changing marijuana’s classification. Currently, pot sits right alongside highly dangerous and strongly addictive synthetic drugs like heroin and LSD. The DEA said it was considering dropping pot into the list of much lesser dangerous drugs.
The DEA still considers pot illegal on a federal level, reported Fortune. What this essentially means is that it is a federal crime to transport marijuana across state lines and the person caught doing so is considered a criminal. Now the question is, will DEA allow smoking marijuana across America if the PTSD study shows positive or promising results?
[Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images]
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