{"id":52100,"date":"2014-08-07T12:08:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T16:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=52100"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:30:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:30:12","slug":"annas-puts-perspective-on-pot","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2014\/annas-puts-perspective-on-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Annas Puts Perspective on Pot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar js-block-editorial-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">August 7, 2014<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Medical marijuana use should be viewed as a medical and public health issue, not a criminal one, and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is going too far by intimidating Massachusetts physicians involved in medical-marijuana dispensaries, BUSPH Professor George Annas argues in the New England Journal of Medicine.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2014\/08\/medical-marijuana-law.png\" alt=\"medical-marijuana-law\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-52106\" height=\"265\" width=\"400\" \/>Annas, professor and chair of health law, bioethics and human rights, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMp1408965?query=featured_home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">says in a \u201cPerspective\u201d article<\/a> that changes in state laws making marijuana accessible to sick people signal a \u201ctipping point\u201d: The legalization trend \u201cwill inevitably lead to changes in enforcement of federal law, even if Congress does not directly change federal marijuana laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Against this larger backdrop, Annas sees the actions of the DEA as misguided, citing reports that the agency has visited at least seven Massachusetts physicians to tell them they would have to sever ties with proposed dispensaries or risk losing their licenses to prescribe potent medications.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote left\">\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe DEA seems to be treating at least some Massachusetts physicians who are medical officers or board members of new marijuana dispensaries as drug dealers,\u201d Annas writes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI believe that in doing so, it is going too far. Unless a physician seeks to be paid by the dispensary on the basis of sales or volume, it\u2019s difficult to see how acting as a medical officer or member of a dispensary\u2019s board could constitute drug dealing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Annas predicts that supporters of medical marijuana will be joined by progressive lawmakers, states\u2019 rights proponents, and libertarians in a movement to protect physicians who follow their states\u2019 medical marijuana laws from \u201coverbearing and intimidating actions against them by the DEA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medical marijuana use should be viewed as a medical and public health issue, not a criminal one, argues George Annas in the New England Journal of Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8472,"featured_media":52101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1977,1976],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3524,3535,3540],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/52100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52100"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/52100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174683,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/52100\/revisions\/174683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52100"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=52100"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=52100"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=52100"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=52100"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=52100"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=52100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}