The key question at the heart of the Utah Medical Cannabis Act (UMCA) debate is this:

Is cannabis medicine…?

And as this linked article (and much more we’ve shared) shows, you bet your sweet bippy it is…..

“…it’s time to set the record straight once and for all on the subject of marijuana as medical remedy: According to the most stringent medical researchers in the world, cannabis is medicine….”

The title of the famous novel “Catch-22” refers to getting caught up in an illogical spiral where the truth of one thing can’t be proven until another thing is proven first – but where the second thing can’t be proven until the first one is. Meaning nothing can ever be proven about, well, either thing.

Which is exactly the situation the FDA and DEA (and others who rely on their shell game) have tried to leave us in.

“As noted researcher Sue Sisley [noted] in 2015: ‘The research on the efficacy of marijuana has been systematically impeded by the federal government for two decades.”

The circle of pretzel thinking runs along these lines:

1. We can’t approve cannabis as medicine because we don’t have the required FDA-approved research. But…..

2. We can’t do the research because a) the DEA puts up huge, expensive barriers and b) the FDA – completely committed to the pharmaceutical industry’s synthesized medicines – refuses to allow plants to be studied as medicines (even though most medicines in all of medical history have botanical origins – including opioids).

Meaning: (Virtually) no FDA-approved research.

However and happily, while the #UMA, #EagleForum and other opponents keep hiding behind this stale nonsense, the #FDA and #DEA don’t control all research, and not all countries are caught up in Reefer Madness era stereotypes.

So there’s a huge amount of non-FDA approved, but rigorous research – done by many scientists at many universities and hospitals – and much more is coming out of countries like Israel who don’t have the US’ history of hangups (and hidden economic agendas).

Consider “a landmark report from the esteemed National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine… Released in January 2017, the report says there is conclusive evidence of efficacy as a treatment for specific conditions including ‘chronic pain in adults,’ ‘multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms’ and ‘chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting’.”

The evidence – BECAUSE of the attempted and until recently successful embargo – is not nearly where it would have been in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and medical integrity for researchers. That is is, we could have and should have known much more by now.

“But even after we’ve taken government barriers into consideration, we’re still left with a worldwide medical authority telling us that marijuana has been proven to help those suffering from” the conditions noted above.

End the Catch-22 madness! Let US researchers loose!

#MMJ #UTpol #Research #UtahNext #TRUCE    

See full article – Marijuana Is Medicine: Settling the Debate | Cannabis Now