Should Medical Marijuana be Federally Legalized?

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It's simply not true to say, "There is no scientifically documented benefit for the use of crude marijuana for any medical purposes." In fact, there are literally dozens of studies around the world and in the U.S. that point to marijuana's medical efficacy for a number of ailments. In case you have doubts, refer below to the database of cannabis-related research from the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM).

Perhaps unknown to the Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF) is that the FDA has approved numerous smoked marijuana studies, which have yielded positive results. One such study was performed by Dr. Donald Abrams at UCSF, which determined that smoked marijuana alleviated neuropathic pain in people living with HIV/AIDS. The problem is that the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) refuses to provide marijuana for the study, as NIDA holds a monopoly on the production of marijuana in the U.S. This monopoly, and a refusal by NIDA to supply an adequate quantity and quality of marijuana, stifles further research.

Smoking marijuana, which is the main focus of DFAF's argument, is only one method of intake for patients that benefit from medical marijuana. It is extracted to make tinctures (herbs have been sold in tinctures for more than 100 years) and to put in food, both ingested orally, or it can be vaporized, which is a method of heating the herb at a lower temperature than needed to burn it, thereby reducing any potential harm from smoked marijuana.

At the same time, we should not restrict the most popular method of intake because we believe it to be inferior to other methods. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people that currently benefit from smoked marijuana. Why deny ill people the option if it works? Further undermining the argument that smoked marijuana is harmful is a 2006 UCLA study by researcher Dr. Donald Tashkin, which showed that there is “no association at all” between cannabis use and lung cancer.