I covered the ridiculous barriers to researching marijuana over at Healthcare Triage:
But now the feds have taken another step towards making this better:
The Obama administration is planning to remove a major roadblock to marijuana research, officials said Wednesday, potentially spurring broad scientific study of a drug that is being used to treat dozens of diseases in states across the nation despite little rigorous evidence of its effectiveness.
The new policy is expected to sharply increase the supply of marijuana available to researchers.
For some time, only the University of Mississippi has been allowed to grow pot for medical studies. It’s been allowed to grow a very small amount. More pot grown means more research that can be done.
And how can that be bad? If you believe that pot has no real medical use, research might show that. If you believe it’s a wonder drug, research will show that. If the former is correct, then we should stop its medical use. If the latter is correct, we all get a drug that works. What’s the downside?
Or, we could just go ahead and legalize it:
And in taking this step, the Obama administration is further relaxing the nation’s stance on marijuana. President Obama has said he views it as no more dangerous than alcohol, and the Justice Department has not stood in the way of states that have legalized the drug.
Looks like President Obama and I agree. Except I think it’s less dangerous than alcohol.
