The use of cannabis formedicinal purposesis becoming increasingly commonplace in the US , with 25 United States Department of State now let the recitation , while a further four have gone a step further and legalized unpaid weed smoking . However , despite the fact that more and more people are now being dictate the drug , some scientists care that the Union government activity is placing too many obstacles in the way of meaningful research into the effects of marijuana , stand for no one really knows the full extent of its benefits and dangers .
In a letter publish recently inScience , University of New Mexico economics assistant prof Sarah Stith and psychology help prof Jacob Vigil deplore that “ to conduct inquiry on cannabis , scientist must submit to a lengthy and heavy practical program process , often lasting for years . ” This , they say , has prevented most meaningful marijuana studies from go off the ground .
Part of the reason for this mess is that , while in many areas of the US marihuana has now been made effectual at state storey , it remains banned on a Union level , and is classified as a Schedule 1 centre . As such , marijuana research “ requires license from multiple governmental agencies , including some with expressly stated opposition to any therapeutic U.S.A. , such as the Drug Enforcement Agency [ DEA ] . ”
In astatement , Stith and Vigil explain that the DEA has a account of deliberately stalling and impeding cannabis research , yet surprisingly , they do not identify this as the biggest obstruction to scientists work with weed . or else , they take that the undivided big factor getting in the way of research worker is that they have to obtain their marijuana from the National Institute of Drug Abuse ( NIDA ) , which bring home the bacon gage with a maximum THC concentration of 12.4 pct . In contrast , moststateswhere the drug is effectual do not have potency limits on medical marijuana , which can contain up to 35 pct THC in extreme instance .
Therefore , while the median strength of medical marijuana in Colorado is 18.7 percent , the only two studies on the drug conducted in 2015 used cannabis that contain just 3.5 and 7 pct THC .
Because of this , the writer of the letter of the alphabet explain that “ the scarce research the US government has approve thus offer little insight into the core really have by patients and amateur substance abuser , ” add that “ many severely inauspicious patient role may suffer unnecessarily because no one knows the straight risks and benefit of consuming cannabis . ”
