There is currently, and will probably be for a good while, debate surrounding the therapeutic utilization of cannabis and the chemical components which may be based on it. There are numerous cogent and rational arguments to get the plant’s medicinal properties, and there are always a handful of compelling reasons for allowing people to choose this treatment path as opposed to any other. The largest obstacle facing the proponents of medical marijuana is just a frustrating tangle of politics.
In the United States of America, at the least at a federal level, cannabis is illegal. It’s prohibited to develop, possess, sell, or purchase the plant. Stiff penalties are routinely imposed for nearly all infractions of this prohibition against the plant.
Individual state governments may have enacted their very own legislation which decriminalizes as well as legalizes the substance, but federal law remains paramount if the matter comes up Auburn Dispensary. Broadly speaking, federal agencies are neither equipped nor motivated to perform state level law enforcement, and so states with less strict laws governing cannabis are essentially safe places for patients.
At the basis of the problem is the perceived therapeutic value of cannabis. Everything hinges upon the determination of actual medicinal benefit. The prohibition against cannabis is codified in the Drug Enforcement Agency’s scheduling of it, which will be based on the potential health advantages associated with a substance.
Some people take trouble with the scheduling and its results. They ask why cocaine and anabolic steroids are believed to have greater medicinal value than cannabis. They notice that the more proprietary and complicated the names get, the less of an issue the Drug Enforcement Agency has with them. While this may be a bit of a wild conspiracy theory to see some kind of collusion between what the law states enforcement agencies and the major pharmaceutical companies, you can find those who maintain that something very much of the sort is going on.
And so the knot is tied. It’s extremely hard to permit patients to choose cannabis as remedy option because the plant is illegal. The plant is illegal as it is known as to have no significant medicinal value. There is research which contradicts this claim, but it’s not considered compelling enough evidence by policy makers.
Interestingly enough, the question of the legal status of cannabis may become resolved for more economic and practical reasons. The social obstacle to mainstream acceptance of cannabinoids is closely associated with the illicit nature of the plant. This can be a facet of the so called War On Drugs started many years back and that has proven incredibly expensive and completely ineffective. Abandoning this “war” would ease everyone’s problems, from the federal accountants to the chemotherapy patients who would like to stop vomiting for a while.
As more and more evidence mounts to counter the Drug Enforcement Agency’s assertion that cannabis does not have any medical benefit, public opinion changes. The states which may have enacted medical marijuana legislation haven’t degenerated into mindless, drug addled chaos. There is a growing feeling that this movement is important and compassionate, and so it will succeed in the end.