Medical Marijuana Law
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| Medical Marijuana Law |
Medical Uses of Marijuana
In response to California's Prop 215, the Institute of medication issued a report that examined potential therapeutic uses for marijuana. The report found that:
"Scientific knowledge indicate the potential therapeutic price of cannabinoid medication, primarily psychoactive substance, for pain relief, management of nausea and reflex, and appetency stimulation; smoke-cured marijuana, however, may be a crude psychoactive substance delivery system that additionally delivers harmful substances. The psychological effects of cannabinoids, like anxiety reduction, sedation, and high spirits will influence their potential therapeutic price. Those effects area unit doubtless undesirable certainly patients and things and helpful for others. additionally, psychological impacts will complicate the interpretation of different aspects of the drug's effect."
Further studies have found that marijuana is effective in relieving a number of the symptoms of HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and degenerative disorder.1
State Vs Federal Perspective
At the federal level, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I substance below the Controlled Substances Act, wherever Schedule I substances area unit thought-about to own a high potential for dependency and no accepted medical use, creating distribution of marijuana a federal offense. In October of 2009, the Obama Administration sent a note to federal prosecutors encouraging them to not prosecute people that distribute marijuana for medical functions in accordance with state law.
Arizona and therefore the District of Columbia voters passed initiatives to permit for medical use, solely to own them upturned. In 1998, voters within the District of Columbia passed Initiative fifty nine. However, Congress blocked the initiative from changing into law. In 2009, Congress reversed its previous call, permitting the initiative to become law. The D.C. Council then place Initiative fifty nine on hold quickly and nemine contradicente approved modifications to the law. Once the politician signs the bill, Congress can have thirty legislative days to review it.
Before passing Proposition 203 in 2010, Arizona voters originally passed a ballot initiative in 1996. However, the initiative explicit that doctors would be allowed to put in writing a "prescription" for marijuana. Since marijuana remains a Schedule I substance, federal law prohibits its prescription, creating the initiative invalid. Medical marijuana "prescriptions" area unit additional usually referred to as "recommendations" or "referrals" thanks to the federal prescription prohibition.
States with medical marijuana laws typically have some sort of patient written record, which can offer some protection against arrest for possession up to an explicit quantity of marijuana for private healthful use. the first exception is Maryland, whose statute merely permits for medical functions as a defense against arrest and prosecution of marijuana possession, however doesn't offer a method for patients to truly get the drug. As of Apr, 2011, folks in Maryland with a debiliating medical condition can not be prosecuted for private use or possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana.
Some of the foremost common policy queries relating to medical marijuana embody the way to regulate its recommendation, dispensing, and registration of approved patients. Some states and localities while not clinic regulation area unit experiencing a boom in new businesses, in hopes of being approved before presumptively stricter laws area unit created. Medical marijuana growers or dispensaries area unit usually referred to as "caregivers" and will be restricted to an explicit range of plants or product per patient. This issue might also be regulated on a neighborhood level, additionally to any state regulation.
