The most egregious outcome of marijuana prohibition is that many sick people cannot legally access the medicine that works best for them. For many seriously ill people, medical marijuana is the only medicine that relieves their pain and suffering, or treats symptoms of their medical condition, without debilitating side effects. Marijuana has been shown to alleviate symptoms of a huge variety of serious medical conditions including cancer, AIDS, and glaucoma, and is often an effective alternative to synthetic painkillers.
Although an overwhelming majority of Americans support medical marijuana, the federal government continues to impede state medical marijuana laws. Marijuana prohibition has also thwarted research within the United States to uncover the best and most effective uses for marijuana as a medicine, making efforts to reform medical marijuana laws particularly difficult.
The Drug Policy Alliance is committed to increasing the number of states with medical marijuana laws, supporting and improving existing state medical marijuana programs, protecting medical marijuana patients, and ending the federal ban on medical marijuana.
In a Surprise Move, the New Mexico Department of Health announced that PTSD will remain a qualifying condition
Drug Policy Alliance Will Continue to Call on the Martinez Administration to Support Access to Medical Marijuana
(SANTA FE, NM) – After months of deliberation, yesterday, the New Mexico Department of Health upheld a recommendation by the Medical Cannabis Program’s Medical Advisory Board and announced that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) will remain a qualifying condition for New Mexico’s medical marijuana program.
Advocates Urge New York Assembly and Senate to Pass Bill
Earlier today, the New York State Assembly Codes Committee passed (A.6357/Gottfried) by a vote of 16 to 6. The bill would alleviate the suffering of thousands of seriously ill New Yorkers by allowing the use of marijuana to treat debilitating, life-threatening illnesses under a doctor’s supervision.
New Law Unlikely to Provide Patients Access to Medicine Absent Changes in Federal Policy
Statement from Drug Policy Alliance's Amanda Reiman
Today, Maryland enacted a law allowing approved academic research institutions in that state to establish investigational, research-oriented medical marijuana studies. Unlike 18 other states that have adopted medical marijuana laws that allow patients to obtain medical marijuana by growing it themselves or purchasing it from state-licensed businesses, Maryland’s law requires that patients obtain their medicine only from a limited number of research hospitals approved to conduct medical marijuana research.
Legislation Would End the Needless Suffering of Thousands of Seriously Ill New Yorkers
Statement from Drug Policy Alliance’s Julie Netherland
Today, New York State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Senator Diane Savino introduced a bill that would create one of the nation’s most tightly regulated medical marijuana programs.
Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, explains that recent marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington isn't simple. The Federal response (or lack thereof) will determine how the policy is actualized.
Bill Would Remove Marijuana from Schedule I and Halt Federal Government Interference With State Medical Marijuana Regulation
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Yesterday, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced legislation that would recognize the medicinal use of marijuana and remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
The issue of regulating medical marijuana would be returned to the states, and individuals complying with state medical marijuana laws would be exempt from federal arrest and prosecution. The bill, the States' Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, H.R. 689, also requires greater access to marijuana for medical research.
DPA Statement: Feds Are Creating a Catch-22 For Research and Policy
On Tuesday, January 22, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in a case challenging the Drug Enforcement Administration’s designation of marijuana as a Schedule I substance. The court was to decide whether the DEA followed its own rules when making the decision not to review scientific evidence that supports removing marijuana from Schedule I. Today, the court ruled that the DEA did adhere to their rules and did not have to reconsider the scheduling of marijuana.
Patients and Advocates Overjoyed to Have Safe and Legal Access to Medical Marijuana
This is the law that was passed by the voters in Colorado legalizing and regulating marijuana.
This is the law that was passed by the voters in Washington State legalizing and regulating marijuana.
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