University of Arizona granted federal permission to study medical cannabis

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Since the beginning of Arizona’s medical marijuana program, people have petitioned the state health department to add post-traumatic stress disorder as a qualifying condition for medical pot. However, PTSD and other conditions aren’t added to the list, due to a lack of scientific research on the risks and benefits of using marijuana to treat those conditions. But that might change.


Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times reported that a University of Arizona researcher has gotten approval from the federal government to study pot’s effects on vets with post-traumatic stress:

For years, scientists who have wanted to study how marijuana might be used to treat illness say they have been stymied by resistance from federal drug officials.
The Arizona study had long ago been sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration, but under federal rules, such experiments can use marijuana only from a single, government-run farm in Mississippi. Researchers say the agency that oversees the farm, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has long been hostile to proposals aimed at examining possible benefits of the drug.

The L.A. Times suggests this might open the door to more pot-related studies.
Those who have supported adding more debilitating conditions to the medical-pot program in Arizona have seen that this lack of research is killing their efforts.
If a condition wasn’t listed in the voter-approved law in 2010, citizens have to petition the state health department to get it added to the list.
Phoenix New Times has the full story.

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