Reclassification

The AMA 2008 Interim Meeting of the House of Delegates has proposed research on the reclassification of marijuana [pdf] to get it out of the "no medical use" category and into a less restrictive category.

After hearing mixed testimony on a pair of resolutions concerning marijuana medical use and research and marijuana reclassification, the AMA voted to refer both for further study. One resolution asked that the AMA support reclassification of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I controlled substance into a more appropriate schedule. Another asked the AMA to support the reclassification of marijuana’s status from a Schedule I controlled substance to a more appropriate schedule and to cease criminal prosecution and other enforcement actions against physicians and patients acting in accordance with states’ medical marijuana laws.

And not only the AMA. The American College of Physicians [pdf] also supports research into the therapeutic effects of marijuana.

This is definitely a promising development. And only 12 years after the passage of Proposition_215 in California. When doctors start coming around on a contentious issue like this it is a very good sign that our drug war may be in its terminal phase. Hopefully in another ten or twenty years we can put it behind us.

Maybe White House drug czar Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey was wrong when he called marijuana "Cheech & Chong" medicine. It may one day be AMA medicine. Wouldn't that be a rebuke to ignorant Generals and czars everywhere?

H/T Jerry Epstein of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values