TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Marijuana is legal in Arizona law but the Federal government law had classified marijuana as a hard drug—illegal and as dangerous as heroin. Now Cannabis is officially under a new classification—-still regulated but less heavily. The new rules could help the University of Arizona bring you better medicines.
A ruling by the US Justice Department has important implications for medical research here at the U of A and plenty of other places in the medical community. It will allow easier research on the benefits, the medical benefits of marijuana.”
For many years researchers have recognized Cannabis as more than a substance that gets people high. They saw it as a serious substance with high potential for useful medications.
“Whether it's pain related, whether it's psychological conditions or even something related to nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, for example, for cancer, cancer treatment.”
Doctor Mohab Ibrahim directs pain management research at the U of A. He says when the Justice Department called cannabis Schedule One. That lumped it in with drugs like Heroin—-regarded as highly addictive and medically useless—-- and tightly regulated.
The tight regulations made marijuana or cannabis harder for researchers to acquire and work with—and patients more reluctant to try drugs derived from something Federal law saw as highly illegal—-even after states like Arizona made marijuana legal for adults.
Now the DOJ has officially listed Cannabis as Schedule Three—-still regulated but classed with less powerful drugs with recognized medical value like Tylenol with Codeine.
Doctor Ibrahim says, “If a patient asks, ‘What do you think of medical cannabis now?’, I can freely discuss it with them, and also it will encourage more physicians to recommend it or even prescribe it, if that becomes an available option down the road, and even on a social aspect, when now that it's scheduled three it will be more socially acceptable, and it will destigmatize the use of medical cannabis.”
Doctor Ibrahim says cannabis for research will probably still be a special type formulated for consistency so researchers get consistent results. The results could lead to effective prescription drugs with fewer damaging side effects than opioid painkillers.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
