The California Medical Association urged the government to legalize marijuana
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The California Medical Association called for the legalization of marijuana. The California Medical Association, which unites about 35,000 physicians, became the first organization in the US that made such an offer.
The author of the new concept was the doctor Donald Lyman from Sacramento, who stated that such a claim was caused by disappointment in the existing law on medical marijuana. The existing law forces doctors to constantly question the correctness of the prescription of a narcotic substance prohibited by federal law.
The law, which allows the use of marijuana for medical purposes, came into force in California since 1996. And in 2010, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger approved the law, according to which possession of less than an ounce (about 29 grams) of marijuana is considered an administrative offense.
According to Lyman, this situation puts doctors in an uncomfortable position. Patients turn to them for a prescription for marijuana, while indications for its use and long-term side effects are not well defined. According to CMA, at the present time cannabis preparations can be considered no more than the means of "traditional medicine".
In this regard, the association called for the legalization of the use of marijuana without the recommendation of a doctor, regulating its sales in a manner similar to tobacco and alcohol. Recognizing that regular use of cannabis may pose a health risk, Californian doctors are convinced that the consequences of criminalizing marijuana are more dangerous than this risk.
In particular, Lyman mentioned such undesirable consequences of criminalization as increased costs for the maintenance of prisoners, negative consequences for families of convicts and racial inequality in sentencing. Legalization, in his opinion, will facilitate medical research related to marijuana, and help to collect statistical data on the useful and negative effects of its use.
The CMA proposal, approved at the annual meeting of the association in Anaheim, aroused sharp criticism from both power structures and health workers.
The representative of the California Association of Police Service Executives, John Lovell, commented on the initiative of doctors: "It's interesting that they smoke." Given everything we know about the physiological consequences of using marijuana - how it affects the brains of adolescents, how many auto-accidents are associated with it - is an incredibly irresponsible attitude. "
Professor of psychiatry at Georgetown Medical School Robert DuPont called the call for legalization "irresponsible disrespect for public health", as it will lead to a sharp increase in the consumption of cannabis.
The head of the Medical Marijuana Center at the University of California, San Diego, Igor Grant, said that contrary to the CMA's assertion of the uncertainty of indications for the use of marijuana, its usefulness for the treatment of a number of patients has been proved experimentally.
The American Medical Association, which includes CMA, has not yet commented on the proposal for the legalization of cannabis. However, earlier she advocated the removal of a number of restrictions on marijuana research.