Leading Medical, Religious, and Legal Organizations Support Physician-Supervised Access to Medical Marijuana

Leading Medical, Religious, and Legal Organizations Support Physician–Supervised Access to Medical Marijuana

• The American Nurses Association (ANA) supports "the right of patients to have safe access to … marijuana under appropriate prescriber supervision" and "legislation to remove criminal penalties including arrest and imprisonment for bona fide patients and prescribers of therapeutic marijuana/cannabis." The ANA resolution finds that "marijuana/cannabis has a wide margin of safety for use under prescribed supervision, and it is effective for numerous conditions."
• The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) accepts the use of marijuana "under medical supervision and control for specific medical indications."
• The American Public Health Association (APHA) supports access to therapeutic marijuana. Its resolution on medical marijuana notes that "marijuana has an extremely wide acute margin of safety for use under medical supervision and cannot cause lethal reactions" and concludes that "greater harm is caused by the legal consequences of [medical marijuana's] prohibition than possible risks of medicinal use."
• The Lymphoma Foundation of America (LFA) "urges Congress and the President to enact legislation to reschedule marijuana to allow doctors to prescribe smokable marijuana to patients in need." It also "urges the US Public Health Service to allow limited access to medicinal marijuana by promptly reopening the Investigational New Drug compassionate access program to new applicants."
• The American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM) supports "state and federal legislation not only to remove criminal penalties associated with medical marijuana, but further to exclude marijuana/cannabis from classification as a Schedule I drug."
• The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) supports "prescriptive medical access" to marijuana and notes that marijuana "is safe for use under medical supervision" and "has therapeutic value in reduction of elevated intraocular pressures, the control of chemotherapeutically–induced emesis … and the reduction of muscle spasms and chronic pain."
• The United Methodist Church's Board of Church and Society has said, "Licensed medical doctors should not be punished for recommending the medical use of marijuana to seriously ill people, and seriously ill people should not be subject to sanctions for using marijuana if the patient's physician has told the patient that such use is likely to be beneficial."
• The Presbyterian Church supports "the use of cannabis sativa or marijuana for legitimate medical purposes as recommended by a physician."
• The Episcopal Church urges "the adoption by Congress and all states of statutes providing that the use of marijuana be permitted when deemed medically appropriate by duly licensed medical practitioners."
• The United Church of Christ has stated, "We believe that seriously ill people should not be subject to arrest and imprisonment for using medical marijuana with their doctors' approval."
• The Unitarian Universalist Association issued a resolution in support of ending "the practice of punishing an individual for obtaining, possessing, or using an otherwise illegal substance to treat a medical condition."
• The Union of Reform Judiasm passed a resolution to "advocate for the necessary changes in local, state and federal law to permit the medicinal use of marijuana and ensure its accessibility for that purpose."
• The American Bar Association (ABA) "recognizes that persons who suffer from serious illnesses for which marijuana has a medically recognized therapeutic value have a right to be treated with marijuana under the supervision of a physician."