Newswise — Medical cannabis was legalized in Colorado in 2000, but 20 years later, Camille Stewart, MD, isn’t able to prescribe it to her patients. Nor is she able to dictate the dosage or frequency with which patients take the drug.
That’s because of the weird limbo in which medical cannabis exists. Although it is legal in many states, cannabis still is classified by the federal government as a Schedule I drug with no current acceptable medical use and a high potential for abuse. That puts it in the same category as heroin, LSD and MDMA (ecstasy).
“You can see why that’s very confusing to a layperson, and even confusing to a person in the medical field,” says Stewart, an assistant professor in the University of Colorado (CU) division of Surgical Oncology and CU Cancer Center member. “You’ve got this thing called medical cannabis, but then at a federal level it literally says in the law that there is no medical use for it.”
In Colorado, the most a physician can do is recommend cannabis for a medical condition. Most states operate in a similar fashion, though laws vary on how cannabis is obtained or grown and who can make the recommendation for a patient to receive it.
Difficulties in research
Because of cannabis’ reported ability to combat cancer-related symptoms including chronic pain and nausea, Stewart for years got questions from patients…
