In an opinion article “New York Does Medical Marijuana Right” published on July 7, 2014 in the Wall Street Journal, Steven R. Patierno, PhD, Deputy Director of the Duke Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, stated that at the bedside of a cancer patient or that of a child suffering from convulsions who urgently require medical help, the use of marijuana as a medicine is uncontroversial.
On July 5 2014, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Compassionate Care Act which introduced simple, yet insightful reforms, that bans marijuana smoking and mandates individual dosing of medical cannabis in some other forms, such as capsules and vaporization. By considering medical marijuana like other medicines, NY altered the debate into the mainstream of modern medicine and set a national standard of care.
Measured dosing is the standard of care in modern medicine which allows doctors to prescribe specific amounts based on the patient’s needs and reduces the chance of harmful drug interactions. Metered doses of cannabis, as prescribed by doctors, are easily tested for contaminants and the potency of all active ingredients which are essential public-health safeguards.
Dr. Patierno said that the use of smokeless cannabis in dosage form will immediately ease human suffering and shall move medical marijuana from the underground economy to the mainstream of the nation’s health-care system.
Meanwhile, consumer rights advocate and author Ralph Nader, in an interview with Drug War Chronicle on October 8, 2004, said that the criminal prosecution of patients registered under the medical marijuana program must stop immediately and cannabis must be considered as a medicine for patients who are seriously ill.
There had been a number of researches showing marijuana to be a safe and effective medicine for controlling nausea associated with cancer therapy, reducing the eye pressure for patients with glaucoma, and reducing muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis and other relief from other illnesses and symptoms.
Nader added that the Drug Enforcement Administration should not be practicing medicine and the right of physicians to prescribe the drug to their patients must be honored and respected without the fear of their license being revoked by the federal government.