The U.S. government has signed off on a long-delayed study looking at marijuana as a treatment for military veterans with post traumatic stress disorder, a development that drug researchers are hailing as a major shift in U.S. policy, according to Yahoo News.
The Department of Health and Human Services' decision surprised marijuana advocates who have struggled for decades to secure federal approval for research into the drug's medical uses, Yahoo reported.
The proposal from the University of Arizona was long ago cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, but researchers had been unable to purchase marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, according to Yahoo. The agency's Mississippi research farm is the only federally-sanctioned source of the drug.
In a letter last week, HHS cleared the purchase of medical marijuana by the studies' chief financial backer, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which supports medical research and legalization of marijuana and other drugs, Yahoo.com reported.
"MAPS has been working for over 22 years to start marijuana drug development research, and this is the first time we've been granted permission to purchase marijuana from NIDA," the Boston-based group said in a statement, according to Yahoo. The federal government has never before approved medical research involving smoked or vaporized marijuana, according to MAPS.
Marijuana remains a Schedule I substance under the federal government's Controlled Substance Act, Yahoo reported. That means the drug is considered a high-risk for abuse with no accepted medical applications.
In the past NIDA has focused its research on the risks of drug abuse and addiction, turning away researchers interested in studying the potential benefits of illegal substances, according to Yahoo.
Even with the latest green light from the Health and Human Services department, MAPS and the University of Arizona Professor Suzanne Sisley must still get approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration, though they expect that clearance to come more quickly, Yahoo reported.
The Veterans Administration estimates between 11 and 20 percent of soldiers who served in the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars have PTSD, which can cause anxiety, flashbacks, depression and sleep deprivation, according to Yahoo. About 7.7 million American adults are estimated to have the disorder.
The American Medical Association has called for a change in marijuana's classification to make it easier for research to be conducted, Yahoo reported. The current classification prevents physicians from even prescribing it in states where medical use is permitted.
Instead, they can only recommend it to patients who can then buy it through a government-approved dispensary in most states, according to Yahoo.
Parents of children with epilepsy have petitioned lawmakers in several states to grant access to a strain of medical marijuana known as "Charlotte's Web," which contains low amounts of the drug's active ingredient, THC, Yahoo reported.
Available in liquid form in Colorado, the strain is believed to be effective in controlling seizures in children, though the Institute of Medicine and the American Medical Association have said more research needs to be done, according to Yahoo.
