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June 18, 2014

Problems With the Medicalization of Marijuana

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
  • 2Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities, Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, Connecticut
  • 3Schizophrenia and Neuropharmacology Research Group, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut
JAMA. 2014;311(23):2377-2378. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.6175

“Medical” marijuana is approved in 21 states and the District of Columbia for numerous conditions, including glaucoma, Crohn disease, posttraumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, Alzheimer disease, and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Both the number of states and the number of approved indications for medical marijuana are expected to increase. Physicians will bear the responsibility of prescribing marijuana and thus have an obligation to understand the issues involved in its “medicalization.”

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