University Discusses Implications of Marijuana Studies Involving Children

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on July 3, 2014 under Addiction Trends | Comments are off for this article

Now that marijuana is becoming legal in some states, most people think about those that consume the drugs are adults. However, some people think that children should be allowed prescriptions for medical marijuana. Last week the University of Colorado Anschutz medical community got together to discuss the moral aspect and health risks associated with allowing children to consume medical marijuana.

A new strain of medical marijuana has been developed that has a low THC count and has been shown to help some children who suffer from epilepsy. With the discovery of this new strain people are beginning to wonder if it is ok to allow children to ingest the drug that has led many people to more serious types of drugs like heroin or cocaine. While some doctors are interested in pursuing marijuana as a viable solution to epilepsy in children, others raised some concerns at the talks.

Federally, marijuana is still considered a Schedule I drug, which is the most strict level of classification from the FDA. Researchers are concerned that advocating or looking further into the possibility that marijuana may be helpful to children that suffer from epilepsy will put the university at risk. Currently the University of Mississippi is the only research institution that is allowed to give marijuana to their researchers for further development and they must follow very strict rules prior to administering the marijuana for research. While the state of Colorado may have passed a law allowing marijuana to be used, it is still not legal on a national level.

In conjunction with the legal complications that surround researching marijuana, researchers asked questions about the moral and ethical aspects of allowing children to use marijuana. No one really knows the long-term effects of marijuana on children, although there have been some indications that earlier marijuana use lowers IQ and reduces memory ability. Due to the lack of research on marijuana, many questions remain hard to answer. Not everyone is anxious to allow children to be prescribed marijuana. There are plenty of advocate groups that disagree with prescribing children the drug that has led so many young people to a life of addiction.