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AMA question marijuana’s federal  classification of as a deadly, addictive drug with no medical use.

COLUMBUS, OHIO — At the November American Medical Association conference the AMA reversed it's position on marijuana as a schedule I drug and urges that “marijuana’s status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid based medicines.”  This is a reversal of the AMA position, which has equated marijuana in the same class as heroin.

Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug by Ohio and the federal government.  A achedule I drug is defined as a substance with high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and a lack of accepted safety standards for its use under medical supervision.  Schedule I drug can not be prescibed by doctors, but the federal government for 40 years has been supply in 300 joints a month to a small group of citiizens.

The AMA now appears to be ready to join other medical organization such as American College of Physicians, American Nurses Association, and others in questioning the federal classification as a deadly addictive drug with no accepted medical use.  Ohio classifies marijuana similarly.

The American College of Physicians, a large organization representing internal medicine doctors, made a similar statement as the AMA. The ACP "supports programs and funding for rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and the publication of such findings”.

"The American Nurses Association (ANA) recognizes that patients should have safe access to therapeutic marijuana/cannabis. Cannabis or marijuana has been used medicinally for centuries. It has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of symptoms and conditions." {Providing Patients Safe Access to Therapeutic Marijuana/Cannabis," American Nurses Association (ANA) website, Mar. 19, 2004}

Ohio and the federal government is going to find it increasingly difficult to support their claims that cannabis (aka marijuana) as having no medical value.  A majority of Ohio citizens supports medical marijuana as evidenced by the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research recent poll results.

Ohio Patients are working to change Ohio laws concerning medical marijuana.