Addiction Medicine Perspective on the Medicalization of Marijuana

Abstract

Many medical, ethical, legal and political issues have been raised by legislation in California removing criminal penalties for the medical use of marijuana. The California Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM) has taken an addiction medicine perspective on the use of marijuana as medicine in an effort to create a neutral framework for dealing with these issues. As part of this perspective, CSAM has called for marijuana to be rescheduled beneath its current Schedule I status. Guidelines for safely integrating cannabis into accepted medical practices are suggested.

Keywords:

• addiction medicine
• dependence
• medical marijuana
• psychopharmacology
• public policy