May 1, 2024 – No material conclusions should be drawn about. marijuana safety Experts warn amid recent announcement that federal regulators may reclassify the drug
But the move is expected to make it easier for scientists to study questions about marijuana's safety and medical efficacy. One legal expert said the federal government's view of its use could change. medical cannabis In states where medical use is legal under state law, by prescription. At this time, it is still considered illegal under federal law.
„If you are a patient in a state with a medical marijuana law and your doctor gives you a prescription for medical marijuana and you possess it, you will no longer be charged with a federal crime,“ wrote Robert Mikos, the attorney for the LaRoche family. Stated. Dean of Law at Vanderbilt University School of Law in Nashville.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing to change the classification of marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. Schedule I also includes drugs such as heroin, and the proposed changes would move marijuana to a lower-risk group that includes drugs such as Suboxone, which is used to treat heroin addiction.
„I don't think the intent of changing from Schedule I to III was to send a message to the public that it's safe to use. I don't think people would misunderstand or overinterpret what the schedule change meant. I hope so,” the psychiatrist said. Dr. Deepak Cyril D'Souza, Director of the Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Science at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Justice Department approved 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 communications director, said in a statement. “Publication in the Federal Register begins the formal rulemaking process prescribed by Congress in the Controlled Substances Act.”
federal government Define Schedule I drugs have a high potential for abuse and are not currently accepted for medical use, while Schedule III drugs have a „moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.“ Other Schedule III drugs include steroids, testosterone, and limited combinations of codeine and Tylenol. There are two additional levels (Schedule IV and V) with even lower risk of abuse or dependence.
„There is some data that suggests that cannabis may have therapeutic applications,“ D'Souza said, using the scientific term for marijuana. “To that extent, I think reclassification makes sense.”
Dr. Andrew Esch, a palliative care specialist in Tampa, Fla., has already received several calls from patients asking what the proposed changes would mean for them. Esch, who specializes in treating patients with serious illnesses, meets Florida's requirements to allow patients to purchase medical marijuana at dispensaries. He praised the reclassification announcement.
„I think this is very important and I think it's a big step in the right direction in getting information to help patients,“ said Esch, who also serves as senior education advisor for the American Center for the Advancement of Palliative Care. Ta. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City.
Although Esch has not used marijuana as a first-line treatment, he believes it may be able to treat nausea, appetite, and sleep problems, as well as pain and anxiety, which are common in people with serious illnesses. , said marijuana is an important option. . However, patients may be reluctant to consider using marijuana.
„Patients are savvy and know how to use the internet. When I recommend medical marijuana, they look it up and find out it's classified the same as heroin, and they get very scared.“ he said. „This reclassification makes it less scary for them when they see it listed alongside things like Tylenol and codeine.“
When prescribing marijuana, Esch administers it the same way he administers prescriptions for opioids.
„I think marijuana can be safe if used in the right patients and carefully monitored,“ he said. “There is much more data on opioids than there is on marijuana, and I think both have risks and both have benefits.”
Not much will change in states where marijuana remains illegal under state law.
„You're still not committing a federal crime, but you may be violating state law. It's the state's enforcement, given who would target an individual with small amounts of drugs. That’s a more important consideration,” Mikos said. In 99% of those cases.
Known risks of marijuana
Currently, 38 states and Washington DC allow medical marijuana use, and 24 states allow recreational use.almost 1 in 5 people use marijuana In the United States, it takes place in a complex legal landscape that remains illegal at the federal level.
„There's very little science to support what's actually happening,“ D'Souza said. “The argument has been made that there is no good science because of strict regulations. So if these regulations are relaxed and marijuana is rescheduled from Schedule I to III, researchers will be able to improve upon these basics. It may be able to answer some of your questions.”
Conducting research on Schedule I drugs involves a high level of risk, liability, and scrutiny by the DEA.
D'Souza has been researching marijuana for 30 years and says the complexity of regulations deters many researchers. His latest project is investigating marijuana as a treatment for nerve pain.
In addition to the lack of research, increasing access to the drug as states legalize it for recreational or medical use has led people to look outside the scientific community for information. This means that there is a lot to look at.
„People are interested in what Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson have to say about cannabis,“ D'Souza said. „For us in the scientific community, it's difficult to counter that. I think we've done a very bad job of educating people.“
He said today's marijuana is up to 20 times more powerful than the marijuana commonly used from the 1960s to the 1980s, and marijuana addiction rates have risen from about 10% of users to up to 30%. It pointed out.
Known risks of marijuana use include:
- Dependence
- Severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
- Accidents caused by drunk driving
- heart and lung problems
- Effects on brain development, especially during fetal development and adolescence.
„As a physician, psychiatrist, and someone who has studied cannabis for 30 years, I remain concerned about the effects of cannabis on human health, similar to my concerns about the effects of alcohol and tobacco on humans. And you know, these are among the top 10 causes of global disease burden,“ D'Souza said. “The game changer was the commercialization of those products.”
Staff writer Kelli Whitlock Burton contributed to this report.