Marijuana as a medicine or cannabinoids is now legal with the Senate Bill 143. The Louisiana house committee has approved the legislation without any objection from any member.
The bill gave state boards authority to create and regulate a system for growing, prescribing and dispensing medical marijuana for patients who need it. It also removes the safeguards that cannabinoid medicines should meet FDA standards.
According to Nola, the support for the research in checking the components of the plant to see therapeutic benefits is okay, but giving sick people with a substance which has not been proven to be safe or effective is not compassionate.
Senate Bill 143 permits physicians to recommend cannabinoids for patients diagnosed with glaucoma, symptoms resulting from chemotherapy and spastic quadriplegia.
The permission given by the bill to treat three symptoms mentioned, glaucoma, spasticity and nausea is not current for three reasons. FDA approved drugs had been developed, the side effect of the subject is too problematic and the specific medical organizations representing specialist in each of these fields do not recommend marijuana for these medical indications.
The decision made by the committee is based on what constitutes a medicine and for what indications at the discretion of the pharmacist. This decision is said to be inappropriate since pharmacists do not have proper training in marijuana pharmacology, toxicology or a wide range of diseases states embodied in the present bill or the future amendments.
Passing the Senate Bill 143 has many unintended consequences such as negative effects on youth and business productivity and the states with medical marijuana may have marijuana abuse. Dependency rate on the said drug is twice higher than other states that do not allow it.
Marijuana will remain illegal drug under federal law, but the federal government made a hands-off approach to states that have lenient marijuana law. The guidance has already been issued to governors in such states by the justice department, Yahoo reported.