IOM is not allowed to address policy and legal issues. Instead, the study is limited to scientific and clinical issues. Barbara Douglass and Irvin Rosenfeld receive legal marijuana from the federal government to treat multiple sclerosis and pain caused by bone tumors, respectively. Douglass and Rosenfeld testified that their marijuana use has not caused any negative health effects, despite their use of several joints a day for decades. Greg Scott, an illegal user of medicinal marijuana, explained how marijuana helped treat his AIDS conditions and contrasted the effects of marijuana with the debilitating effects of the many prescription drugs he has taken, including morphine.
Marijuana works as a medicine for some people.
Research should not detract from the number one goal of getting smokable marijuana approved as a legal medicine.