Alex Ard
Federal Restrictions Slow Progress on Medical Marijuana Research
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Research on marijuana’s potential for medicinal use has been hampered for years by federal restrictions, even though nearly half of the states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana in some form. An analysis by News21 shows that $1.1 billion of the $1.4 billion that the National Institute of Health spent on marijuana research from 2008 to 2014 went toward research on marijuana abuse and addiction. Only $297 million was spent on its effects on the brain and potential medical benefits for those suffering from conditions like chronic pain. “We don’t have new things to treat for pain,” Dr. Todd Vanderah, chief of pharmacology at the University of Arizona, said. “We’re still dealing with narcotics that have been around for thousands of years, and it’s led to this issue of people abusing drugs and the rise of heroin.”
Some parents with children suffering from seizures want to try medical marijuana to treat their children more effectively than current medicine has been able to, but the Food and Drug Administration has not approved any marijuana-based medicines for seizures.