Over the years, the use of medicinal marijuana has become a hotly debated issue in the United States; as of now, twenty three states in America have legalized the substance for medicinal purposes. Supporters of medicinal marijuana claim that the drug is useful for treating a large variety of diseases and conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, HIV, sleep disorders, psychosis, Tourette’s syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Many physicians themselves back up this claim, stating that the use of medical marijuana has led to impressive improvements in their patients’ health.

Despite this, many other doctors and leading medical researchers have questioned the validity of this claim due to the lack of reliable, scientific research on the subject. In order to try and confirm whether or not marijuana had the capability to treat the illnesses mentioned above, the Journal of the American Medical Association recently released the surprising results of its latest study, which consisted of 79 randomized trials and 6,462 participants overall. Dr. Penny Whiting, the lead researcher of the study, and her team concluded that there was moderate-quality evidence supporting the use of marijuana for chronic pain and spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis. However, the research team only found lower-quality evidence supporting the use of marijuana for sleep disorders and Tourette’s syndrome, and they found “very-low” evidence supporting the claim that medical marijuana helps patients with psychosis, anxiety, depression, or any of the other conditions.

Overall, the results of this study illustrate an issue faced by those within the medical marijuana community. Robert Wolff, one of the authors of the Journal of the American Medical Association’s study, states that if marijuana were treated as a new drug on the market, the lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness would mean that the FDA would not approve it. Wolff says, “I think the same principle should be applied as for normal drugs. It should be treated as a medication, with all the pros and cons.”This illustrates how approval for medical marijuana has come from low quality evidence and public opinion without being supported by the results of a legitimate study. Much more government testing needs to occur before medical marijuana should be allowed to be administered by psychiatrists and physicians; otherwise, unknown side effects may cause serious harm to those using it.