Kids' Health

American Academy Of Pediatrics In Favor Of Researching Medical Marijuana For Kids

The American Academy of Pediatrics just released a study favoring researching medical marijuana for kids dealing with epilepsy and Crohn's Disease.

by Fatherly
Updated: 
Originally Published: 

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which provides guidance to parents on everything from supplements to screen time — has issued a policy paper supporting medical marijuana for “compassionate use in children with debilitating or life-limiting diseases.” Compassionate use – use of an unapproved drug when nothing else proves effective – is legalese for “kids shouldn’t have to suffer while legislators play politics with a potential treatment.”

The AAP is also urging the Drug Enforcement Agency to downgrade marijuana from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 2 drug. Doing so would recognize that weed has potential medicinal value in treating various illnesses that kids suffer from, including epilepsy and Crohn’s Disease.

The paper is so carefully worded it’s painful, and goes out of its way to reaffirm the AAP’s opposition to recreational use and the harmful effects of weed’s psychoactive ingredients, like THC. Being doctors, they can’t really endorse young kids messing with their brains; being scientists, they know that the most medically promising parts of a weed plant have nothing to do with the parts that you might find promising, personally. (Read more about what weed does to your brain and body here.)

Not incidentally, the House Of Representatives is currently considering a bill that would reclassify low-THC strands of marijuana as medically viable — the first federal recognition of its kind. Maybe the congressmen should talk to their kids’ doctors about it.

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