May 1, 2024 – You should not draw significant conclusions about Marijuana Safety With the recent announcement that federal regulators may reclassify the drug, experts warn
But the move is expected to make it easier for scientists to study questions about safety and how effective cannabis is as a medical treatment.One legal expert says this could change the federal government’s approach to using medical marijuana Available by prescription in states where medical use is legal under state law. Currently, this is still considered illegal under federal law.
“If you are a patient in a state with a medical marijuana law and your doctor prescribes medical marijuana to you and you possess it, then you will Never commit another federal crime.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has proposed changing the way marijuana is classified from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. Schedule One also includes drugs such as heroin, and the proposed changes would move cannabis to a lower-risk group, including drugs such as Suboxone, which is used to treat heroin addiction.
“I don’t think the purpose of moving it from Schedule I to Schedule III was to convey a message to the public that it was safe to use. I hope people don’t misunderstand or overinterpret what the schedule change means. Deepak Cyril D’Souza, MD, Director of the Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Science at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Justice Department confirmed the proposed changes Wednesday.
“Today, the Attorney General circulated a proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III,” Xochitl Hinojosa, the department’s director of public affairs, said in a statement. “Once published in the Federal Register, it will initiate a formal rulemaking process in the manner specified by Congress in the Controlled Substances Act.”
federal government definition Schedule I drugs have a high potential for abuse and have no currently accepted medical use, while Schedule III drugs have “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” Some other Schedule III drugs include steroids, testosterone, and, to a limited extent, certain combinations of codeine and Tylenol. There are also two tiers—Schedules IV and V—that carry a lower risk of abuse or dependence.
“There is some data that suggests marijuana may have therapeutic uses,” D’Souza said, using the scientific term for marijuana. “So in that sense, I think reclassification does make sense.”
Andrew Esch, MD, a hospice specialist in Tampa, Florida, has fielded calls from some patients asking what the proposed changes might mean for them. Esch, who specializes in treating patients with serious medical conditions, met Florida’s requirements to certify patients to purchase medical marijuana from a dispensary. He applauded the reclassification announcement.
“I think it’s important, and I think it’s a big step in the right direction to get information that helps our patients,” said Esch, who is also senior education officer at the center’s Center for Advancing Palliative Care. consultant.
Esch said that while he has never considered cannabis as a first-line treatment, it is an important option because of its potential to treat problems such as nausea, appetite, sleep, pain and anxiety in people with serious illnesses. very common. But sometimes, his patients are reluctant to consider using marijuana.
“Patients are savvy and they know how to use the Internet. If I suggested medical marijuana and they would find it and find out it’s classified the same as heroin, they would become very, very scared,” he said. “That reclassification, when they see it listed with things like Tylenol and codeine, it becomes less scary for them.”
When prescribing marijuana, Esch administers it the same way he administers prescriptions for opioids.
“I think cannabis is safe if it’s used in the right patients and monitored closely,” he said. “There’s a lot more data on opioids than there is on marijuana, and I think both have their dangers and both have their benefits.”
In states where marijuana remains illegal under state law, not much will change.
“You’re still not committing a federal crime, but you may be violating state law,” Mikos said. “That’s a more important consideration because if you look at who’s going after people who possess small amounts of drugs, the state is going to Deal with these people.
Known Risks of Marijuana
Currently, 38 states and Washington, D.C., allow medical marijuana use, and 24 states allow recreational use.almost One in five people smoke marijuana In the United States, the legal landscape is complex and it remains illegal at the federal level.
“There is very little scientific evidence to support what is happening in reality,” D’Souza said. “The argument that’s been made is that because of the strict regulations, there’s no good scientific basis for it. So if those regulations were relaxed and cannabis was rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule III, that might allow researchers to answer some of these fundamental questions .
Conducting research involving Schedule I drugs carries high risks, liability, and scrutiny by the DEA.
D’Souza, who has been studying cannabis for 30 years, said regulatory complexity has deterred many researchers. His latest project will investigate cannabis as a treatment for nerve pain.
A lack of research, combined with states legalizing the drug for recreational or medical use, has made the drug increasingly accessible, meaning people often look to outside the scientific community for information.
“People are interested in what Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson think about marijuana,” D’Souza said. “It’s hard for us in the scientific community to compete. I think we do a really bad job of educating people.
He pointed out that today’s marijuana is 20 times more potent than the marijuana commonly used from the 1960s to the 1980s, and the proportion of marijuana smoked has increased from about 10% to 30%.
Known risks of marijuana use include:
- addiction
- serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
- Drunk driving accident
- heart and lung problems
- Effects on brain development, especially during fetal development and adolescence.
“As a physician, as a psychiatrist, as someone who has studied cannabis for 30 years, I would say that I am still concerned about the impact of cannabis on human health, just as I am concerned about the impact of alcohol and tobacco on human health. . As you know, these are among the top 10 causes of global disease burden,” D’Souza said. “The game-changer is the commercialization of these products.”
Staff writer Kelly Whitlock Burton contributed to this report.
