Pubdate: Mon, 26 Jan 2015
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2015 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Lindsey Tanner, The Associated Press

DOCS: USE MEDICAL POT ON ILL KIDS ONLY AS LAST RESORT

CHICAGO (AP) - With virtually no hard proof that medical marijuana 
helps sick children, and evidence that it may harm developing brains, 
the drug should only be used for severely ill kids who have no other 
treatment option, the nation's most influential pediatricians group says.

Some parents insist medical marijuana has cured their kids' seizures 
or led to other improvements, but the American Academy of Pediatrics' 
new policy says rigorous research is needed to verify those claims.

To make it easier to study and develop marijuana based treatments, 
the group recommends removing marijuana from the government's most 
restrictive drug category, which includes heroin, LSD and other 
narcotics with no accepted medical use, and switching it to the 
category that includes methadone and oxycodone.

The recommended switch "could help make a big difference in promoting 
more research," said Dr. Seth Ammerman, the policy's lead author and 
a professor of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Stanford University.

The academy's qualified support may lead more pediatricians to 
prescribe medical marijuana, but the group says pediatric use should 
only be considered "for children with life-limiting or severely 
debilitating conditions and for whom current therapies are inadequate."

Studies have linked recreational-marijuana use in kids with ill effects.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom