Where are the Medical Marijuana clinical studies?
One of my friends suffers from a whole host of health issues, and recently was asking for suggestions on getting rid of migraines. Another friend suggested marijuana as a possible reliever. This sparked my curiousity and I researched the possible connection online a bit. Here is a link to the best unbiased overview site I found: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000218.
[For those of us too lazy to click on links and read through articles, the summary point from this article is: Mostly, it seems the theorized connection is hotly under debate, as there is a dearth of clinical studies on the subject.] From a populus theory of online opinions, there are lots of people who claim smoking does help their migraines, but, again, no real hard science to back that up, just lots of neuroscience theorizing. We understand the brain so little.
This made me wonder who is (or should be) in charge of such clinical trials, which led me to this article: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/06/1198688/-What-NIDA-Means-for-Marijuana-Research.
[Summary: really, just read it. It's good, and has numbers & facts to back this up. Basically, NIDA & the government have a monopoly on marijuana studies because they own the only legal source of pot, and they are blatantly biased against any medical legitimacy of marijuana, so it is nearly impossible to get approval for such studies.]
Now, I'm not necessarily for or against marijuana, though I would really like to be more informed on the subject. I really wish there was more scientific research on how marijuana affects brains & bodies over short term and long term, when all we, as individuals & as a society, have to go on is hearsay, personal experiences and what the media tells us.
I want science, I want facts.
Which led me to wonder if there is anyone working towards this goal, and I found the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS: http://www.maps.org/research/mmj/). Their site seems to back up the above blog link that NIDA is blocking marijuana research & clinical trials.
Considering that states are now voting in opposition to federal law, and the prevalence of marijuana in American society, shouldn't our government be supporting the search for knowledge in this area? Or is the government's stand really to support ignorance and stubbornly standing their ground? Really? America, we can be better than that. Let the scientists do their job.
However, the veracity of information on the internet is always hard to prove, but let me leave on the same site we came in on, and I really appreciate their equal representation in simple pro/con format of the issues regarding medical marijuana. Here is a link to their page: "Has the government blocked clinical trials of marijuana?" http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000322.
Research it yourself. What have you found?
[For those of us too lazy to click on links and read through articles, the summary point from this article is: Mostly, it seems the theorized connection is hotly under debate, as there is a dearth of clinical studies on the subject.] From a populus theory of online opinions, there are lots of people who claim smoking does help their migraines, but, again, no real hard science to back that up, just lots of neuroscience theorizing. We understand the brain so little.
This made me wonder who is (or should be) in charge of such clinical trials, which led me to this article: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/06/1198688/-What-NIDA-Means-for-Marijuana-Research.
[Summary: really, just read it. It's good, and has numbers & facts to back this up. Basically, NIDA & the government have a monopoly on marijuana studies because they own the only legal source of pot, and they are blatantly biased against any medical legitimacy of marijuana, so it is nearly impossible to get approval for such studies.]
Now, I'm not necessarily for or against marijuana, though I would really like to be more informed on the subject. I really wish there was more scientific research on how marijuana affects brains & bodies over short term and long term, when all we, as individuals & as a society, have to go on is hearsay, personal experiences and what the media tells us.
I want science, I want facts.
Which led me to wonder if there is anyone working towards this goal, and I found the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS: http://www.maps.org/research/mmj/). Their site seems to back up the above blog link that NIDA is blocking marijuana research & clinical trials.
Considering that states are now voting in opposition to federal law, and the prevalence of marijuana in American society, shouldn't our government be supporting the search for knowledge in this area? Or is the government's stand really to support ignorance and stubbornly standing their ground? Really? America, we can be better than that. Let the scientists do their job.
However, the veracity of information on the internet is always hard to prove, but let me leave on the same site we came in on, and I really appreciate their equal representation in simple pro/con format of the issues regarding medical marijuana. Here is a link to their page: "Has the government blocked clinical trials of marijuana?" http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000322.
Research it yourself. What have you found?
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