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The IOM report
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See also:
See also: Medical cannabis
See also: Marijuana
See also: Cannabis in Japan

See also: IOM report information.
See also: IOM report HTML version.


After the passage of the medical marijuana legislation proposition 215 in California the American "drug czar" and retired General Barry McCaffrey declared that there was "not one shred of evidence" that marijuana had medical uses and denounced it as "Cheech and Chong medicine", after a marijuana-using team of comedians.

General McCaffrey then made the fatal mistake of ordering a study from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the Academy of Sciences. For about $900,000 it was to determine the facts by review existing literature and talking to patients and doctors to determine what is known about marijuana as a medicine. The study was finally released on March 17, 1999. It confirmed that:

  • marijuana has some well established medical uses,
  • it does not lead to harder drugs (gateway or stepping stone theory)
  • it's addiction potential is not very serious and
  • it's side effects are within the range tolerated for other legal medicines.
This study has basically destroyed any justification for classifying marijuana with other drugs that are addictive or without established medical use. See http://www.mpp.org/science.html for some quotes for details.

The report can be ordered at the National Academy Press website or you can read an HTML version at the NAP site.


See also:
See also: Medical cannabis
See also: Marijuana
See also: Cannabis in Japan

See also: IOM report information.
See also: IOM report HTML version.



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