For the second time this year, the highly acclaimed New United Kingdom Journal of Medicine, argued for the medicinal use of marijuana. Just one day prior to the release of an NIH report recommending future medical marijuana trials, an article by George Annas in the August 7 edition of the magazine demanded that seriously ill patients have legal access to marijuana. Annas is a professor at Boston University’s School of Medicine.
The following excerpt is taken from the “Conclusions” of that article.
Doctors are not the enemy in the ‘war’ on drugs; ignorance and hypocrisy are. Research should go on, and while it does, marijuana should be available to all patients who need it to help them undergo treatment for life-threatening illnesses. [Emphasis added. -ed.] There is certainly sufficient evidence to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug. …Marijuana is not claimed to be a treatment in itself; instead it is used to help patients withstand the effect of accepted treatment that can lead to a cure or amelioration of their condition. As long as therapy is safe and has not been proven ineffective, seriously ill patients (and their physicians) should have access to whatever they need to fight for their lives.