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New MMJ research could greenlight more uses in treatment

Despite its continuing hardline stance against marijuana, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has shown some signs of relenting and this summer opened the door to allowing more farms to grow cannabis for official research purposes. That’s an important step forward that may change the potential marijuana has for medical treatment. Up to this point, researchers have had to depend on just one farm at the University of Mississippi to supply cannabis for all studies.

Eight states have voted to legalize recreational marijuana, and 28 states now allow its use for medical purposes. Under federal law, however, marijuana continues to be classified as a highly dangerous illegal drug. Despite the DEA’s resistance to reclassification, marijuana has a broad list of potential medical applications, from treating pain to neurological diseases. Further study could open up many new medical treatments.

“Researchers who conduct experimental studies and administer cannabis to their research participants have difficulty obtaining cannabis for their research,” says Madeline Meier, assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University, who has studied the safety of long term marijuana use. But the end to a 50-year monopoly on medical research marijuana will change that, potentially opening up new areas of medical utility and easing the way to federal reclassification.

Read more at The Guardian

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