Australia

Just putting this here as several commentors seem to have misread my intention posting this here

Most responses here seem to assume that I'm opposed to medical marijuana, I'm not. I am in fact in favor of it's use, appropriately, in select patients, as with any medication.

I also want to caution against conflating recreational use(which may be problematic but is usually fine) with medicinal use(which should be held to the highest standards of evidence as any medicine should).

Now, regarding the evidence to date, efficacy is well established for refractory epilepsy and spasticity in MS. It is quite well established to have a role in pain control. Evidence that it is superior to other treatments for anxiety is pretty scant, we hold antidepressants to a pretty low standard and cannabis fails to even be that good in the published studies.

In terms of safety we frequently see acute intoxication from prescribed cannabis and worsening of co-morbid mental health conditions is really common. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pains are all fairly frequent and I have seen one case of psychosis from prescribed marijuana. What's more, we see these more commonly in emergency departments, psych wards and GP clinics now that it is easily available from unscrupulous corporate owned clinics.

The article isn't claiming that medical marijuana is inherently dangerous or that it doesn't have a role in medicine. It states, correctly, that the TGA has never actually assessed the safety of the vast majority of products on the market. This is concerning for anyone who might want to prescribe these with confidence.

@givesomefucks@lemmy.world @wesker@lemmy.sdf.org @Taleya@aussie.zone @Randomgal@lemmy.ca