AMA Endorses Medicinal Marijuana: Unexpected Policy Shift Boosts Support for Medicinal Benefits

On Tuesday, the movement for Medicinal Marijuana received an unexpected endorsement from the American Medical Association.

This marks a substantial policy shift for the AMA, which contains approximately 250,000 member doctors, making it, by far, the largest and most influential association of doctors in the United States.
Their decision to shift policies is especially significant, since the AMA has maintained since 1997 that marijuana should remain a Schedule I substance, meaning that it should continue to be considered by the Federal Government to have no medicinal value and to be dangerous and addictive.
Substances such as LSD and PCP share this category, but even ampehetamines and cocaine are classified as Schedule II substances, since both have recognized medicinal properties.
The AMA stated that its goal was to clear the way to conduct clinical research, or to develop cannabis-based medicines, as well as alternative ways to deliver the drug.
One of the primary reasons that the AMA wants marijuana’s classification to be changed is that it would allow for a greater number of clinical studies in order to satisfy the current standards for prescription drugs.
The decision by the organization’s delegates at a Houston meeting is particularly significant, since the traditionally conservative AMA had once linked marijuana to homicidal mania. Since California voters decided in 1996, marijuana has become more accepted as its moved more into the cultural mainstream. The AMA adopted a new policy that states, “This should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product.