http://www.sltrib.com/news/2103860-155/new-recommendations-for-medical-marijuana-cheer
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New recommendations for medical marijuana encourage Utah parents of epileptic kids By ANNIE KNOX | The Salt Lake Tribune connect First Published Jan 26 2015 04:51PM • Updated 6 hours ago
Medical marijuana advocates in Utah are cheering a new policy statement from the nation's leading group of pediatric doctors.
Marijuana should be reclassified from the government drug category that includes heroin to a less restrictive class encompassing methadone and oxycodone, the American Academy of Pediatrics said Monday.
The recommended switch from a Schedule I to Schedule II drug would remove some of the hurdles for research on the drug's effects. In Utah, one such study is already underway: About 20 participating children are receiving free doses of a pharmaceutical version of cannabis oil at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Some families of Utah children who have exhausted other treatments for epilepsy hope the policy change will boost research efforts nationwide.
Jennifer May of Pleasant Grove, whose 12-year-old son Stockton has a severe form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome, praised the academy's statement.
"They're finally stepping up," she said. "They are saying this needs to change, and that's huge for us."
May says Primary Children's program took nearly a year to secure various rounds of federal approval typically reserved for illicit drugs with no medicinal benefits, including peyote and LSD.
Primary Children's did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
After May and other families shared their stories of trying all other treatment options for children with epilepsy, Utah lawmakers passed a measure last year allowing such patients to import a cannabis-derived oil.
Under the law, people with a state hemp extract permit can legally possess oil that is at least 15 percent cannabidiol, the chemical in cannabis believed to have anti-seizure properties. It must contain less than 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical in marijuana that produces a high.
Colorado Springs doctor Margaret Gedde, who prescribes marijuana and has compiled case studies of children using cannabis-infused oil, called the academy's update "encouraging."
Clearing each round of federal approval for marijuana studies can take years. Among physicians, "it puts a big damper on anybody even trying" to do research on the drug, she said. But that could change if marijuana is reclassified.
The Utah study took nearly a year to get underway, much longer than the typical waiting period for clinical drug studies, which is usually just a few months.
"I think it'll be helpful," Gedde said of the academy recommendation, but noted it could take years before pending court cases or lawmakers take action to reclassify the drug. "It won't make a change right away."
Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, it's up to the Drug Enforcement Agency and Food and Drug Administration to classify drugs.
The academy's Monday policy announcement, which appeared online in the journal Pediatrics, adds to the group's 2004 policy.
The pediatricians note that for children, medical marijuana should only be used to treat "children with life-limiting or severely debilitating conditions and for whom current therapies are inadequate."
The doctors also disagree with legalizing recreational marijuana and point to studies that have suggested recreational marijuana can hurt kids' brains and general health.
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Additional, cleared MJ suppliers would really fix this problem.
-------------------- ...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge. It is an indellible experience; it is forever known. I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did. Smith, P. Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27. ...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely. Osmond, H. Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436
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