Medical marijuana users are looking for the Drug Enforcement Administration chief to step down from his position. In an interview session with reporters a week ago, Chuck Rosenberg stated that medical marijuana was “a joke.” Big mistake. Since last week, 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for Rosenberg to resign from his position.
“What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal because it’s not,” Rosenberg told CBS. “We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous but don’t call it medicine — that is a joke.”
“There are pieces of marijuana — extracts or constituents or component parts — that have great promise,” he added. “But if you talk about smoking the leaf of marijuana — which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana — it has never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine.”
Upset medical marijuana patients have noted that there have been studies that have found the drug to be very efficient in treating pain and muscle spasms; an overall analysis of 79 medical marijuana studies that included 6,000 patients in the Journal of the American Medical Association a few months back found “moderate-quality evidence to support the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of chronic pain and spasticity.”
Even beyond just patients, doctors have also wanted to prescribe marijuana rather than prescription painkillers which can be very addictive and lethal. In fact, 16,000 people overdose on painkillers in 2013 according to the Centers for Disease Control. Other studies that less painkillers are abused as more people are prescribed medical marijuana. At the moment, medical marijuana has been legalized in 23 states as well was Washington, D.C., but is still illegal under federal law.
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