Anyone who follows TRUCE even casually knows we support evidence-based research on cannabis. We report (credibly) on published findings sometimes multiple times a day, discuss the nature of what makes evidence, analyze how the FDA, DEA, NIDA, AMA, UMA and other groups approach science – and how groups like the RMHIDTA badly abuse interpreting data.
So sound science and robust research are hallmarks near and dear to us.
And that said, we were never fans of last year’s HB130 – the Utah Cannabinoid Research Act for reasons we’ve gotten into on other occasions, but e.g., we saw little need for Utah to try and reinvent the research wheel already containing tens of thousands of scientific papers and studies, many of the most stringently conducted peer-reviewed variety, which have been and are being done at major universities and research centers in the US and around the world in order to get the answer as to whether Utah should have a medical cannabis program.
Because the answer to that question is already more than clear. Every Utah patient who stands to benefit deserves safe, legal and affordable access to cannabis – and not just the CBD medicines which were the main focus of the act. But without the support of many groups like ours, Rep. Brad Daw shepherded Utah’s very own small research bill into existence, with an oversight board recommended by the Utah Medical Association which doesn’t even believe that cannabis is medicine, despite all the existing evidence.
And rather than answering the questions promised to date, the conduct of the research itself – and its private backers and officials is raising questions of law, ethics, professionalism and sound research practice as partially outlined in this investigative reportage from the Standard-Examiner on a developing story.
We’ll go so far as to call this a must read for activists and anyone interested in the issue, as with the 2018 legislative session nearly upon us, some of the same people involved in deciding this was the direction Utah should go in – instead of moving expeditiously to a best practices program based on what other states have already successfully implemented – have new bills to offer which they presumably feel are better than the Utah Patients Coalition’s ballot initiative proposal.
And we expect to have further reservations about the legislature’s proposals for this session. But we’ll reserve analysis for particular bills once they’ve become public and we live in hope.
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See full article – Doctor overseeing CBD oil study faces Medicare fraud charges
