And the only reason this is "controversial" to politicians right now is because there are such powerful, underlying forces in this country aligned against the use of marijuana for any purpose other than putting young people (and not so young people) in prison.
We're really talking about an overwhelming majority here.
The survey finds that 76 percent of doctors in the U.S. and 78 percent of doctors internationally would personally prescribe medical marijuana to a fictional 68-year-old woman with deteriorating cancer.
I doubt if you could get that many doctors to agree on prescribing aspirin.
Along with the survey, researchers included an addendum explaining the reasoning behind their support...
“Many [respondents] pointed out the known dangers of prescription narcotics, supported patient choice, or described personal experience with patients who benefited from the use of marijuana,”
The overall versatility of marijuana makes the option easier to choose for doctors. Known benefits include
relieving pain, easing nausea and promoting appetite for patients with chronic pain and other medical conditions like cancer, HIV treatment, Crohn's disease and PTSD.
However, physicians critical of marijuana as a veritable medical treatment cited...
“... the lack of evidence [of effectiveness], the lack of provenance, inconsistency of dosage, and concern about side effects, including psychosis.”
One questionable criticism noted by some physicians included not knowing where the supply of marijuana would come from, and therefore they couldn't properly assess its safety.
I say "questionable" because It seems to me that proper regulation of the supply would allay most physicians' fears as far as product safety is concerned.
More from ThinkProgress
Doctors’ concerns over supply safety could be more easily addressed if the federal government didn’t make it so difficult for legal dispensaries to produce and distribute their product, thus encouraging underground practices. Although medical marijuana is legal in 19 states and the District of Columbia, dispensary owners and users alike face a hazy legal landscape. Federal officials bar dispensary owners from writing off business-related expenses to the IRS, opening business-related bank accounts, and often blacklist them from even using credit cards.
Along with current arbitrary legality around the country, the federal government's general anti-marijuana policy also has a negative affect on patients.
Research into marijuana’s effectiveness in treating PTSD — which 30 percent of American veterans suffer from — has been blocked in the U.S., despite Israeli research suggesting that it might be an effective course of treatment.
The consensus, however, continues to grow, Doctors' groups like the
American Medical Association and the
American College of Physicians, and patient advocacy organizations have called on the federal government to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to promote more research into its effectiveness. Even a government organization, the
National Cancer Institute, has found that the use of cannabis may have health benefits which include fighting breast and colorectal cancer.
The refusal to reclassify marijuana has made it cost prohibitive for many patients because they're forced to spend hundreds of dollars out of pocket for medication since insurance companies don't cover it. And the Schedule I classification has led to patients being kicked off organ transplant waiting lists solely because of the use of marijuana as part of their treatment.
Support for medical marijuana isn't limited to physicians either. Several new polls show growing support across many demographics. In fact, a Fox poll last month found that support is even higher among the American electorate in general, and across party lines. Ninety-one percent of Democrats, eighty-seven percent of Independents and even eighty percent of Republican respondents were for the prescription of medical marijuana.
It's time to end this misguided, insidious prohibition. We need a whole new direction for our drug policy.