Note from Ilena: The object of mass propaganda campaigns by competing industries for decades ... some sanity may now be breaking through, aided by open minded physicians.
by Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. doctors group has endorsed using marijuana for medical purposes, urging the U.S. government to roll back a prohibition on using it to treat patients and supporting studies into its medical applications.
The group cited evidence that marijuana is valuable in treating severe weight loss associated with AIDS, and nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients.
"Additional research is needed to clarify marijuana's therapeutic properties and determine standard and optimal doses and routes of delivery. Unfortunately, research expansion has been hindered by a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research-grade marijuana and the debate over legalization," the group said.
The Philadelphia-based group, founded in 1915, is made up of 124,000 doctors who treat adults.
Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which urges legal and regulated sales of marijuana, said, "This statement by America's second-largest doctors group demolishes the myth that the medical community doesn't support medical marijuana."For more, click here.
