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Americans for Safe Access
Monthly Activist Newsletter

December 2009

Volume 4, Issue 12

AMA Says Marijuana is Medicine, Urges Change in Federal Position

Physicians' Group Wants Research Barriers Removed

The leading national doctors' group has now endorsed the medical use of cannabis and called for more research into the drug's potential. The move by the American Medical Association, the largest and most prestigious organization of physicians with nearly 250,000 members, officially calls on the federal government to recognize marijuana as a medicine and make it available for more clinical research.

The decision by the AMA marks a change in policy for the organization, which has historically supported the federal government's contention that there are no currently accepted medical uses for cannabis. Led by ASA Medical and Scientific Advisory Board member Dr. Sunil Aggrawal, the AMA's Medical Student Section pushed the larger organization to change its position based on the thousands of published, peer-reviewed scientific articles exploring the therapeutic applications of cannabis and cannabinoids, including 79 controlled clinical trials.

"It's been 72 years since the AMA has officially recognized that marijuana has both already-demonstrated and future-promising medical utility," said Dr. Aggarwal, who was one of the expert reviewers for the AMA. "The AMA has written an extensive, well-documented, evidence-based report."

The AMA's Council on Science and Public Health concluded that "controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis."

While these are conditions for which cannabis has been repeatedly shown to be effective, the AMA's formal recognition of the established science has larger policy implications. The U.S. federal government has long used the AMA's opposition to medical cannabis as justification for its own position. But that position has now been undermined by the AMA's report, which also urges the federal government to reconsider the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I drug. Reclassifying it as a medicine would, the AMA notes, help meet "the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods."

The full report has not yet been made public, as the AMA hopes to publish it in a peer-reviewed journal "to help educate the medical community about the scientific basis of botanical cannabis-based medicines."
The report follows a resolution adopted in June by the Medical Student Section and responds to three resolutions dealing with medical marijuana that have come before the AMA in the past year. In February 2008, a position similar to the AMA's was adopted by the American College of Physicians, the country's second-largest physician group and the largest organization of doctors of internal medicine. That resolution also called on the federal government to review marijuana's status as a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it is considered to be highly dangerous and have no medical use.

"The two largest physician groups in the U.S. have established medical marijuana as a health care issue that must be addressed," said ASA Government Affairs Director Caren Woodson. "Both organizations have underscored the need for change by placing patients above politics."

The AMA joins the American Nurses Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the British Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Association, and dozens of other organizations of health professionals in recognizing established therapeutic uses and calling for additional research.

See the AMA report at: AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/AMA_Report.pdf

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