BANGKOK — Stress is among a number of symptoms the Food and Drug Administration is considering for treatment with medical cannabis, the regulator said Wednesday.
Following an amnesty plan announced yesterday for pot smokers, the administration’s chief executive said today that officials are making the final decisions on which diseases and symptoms will be included in guidelines for treatment, and what type of cannabis medications are needed for them.
According to Tares Krassanairawiwong, the administration is classifying potential valid conditions into into three groups.
The first includes those that existing scientific proof shows can be treated by marijuana: nausea in cancer patients, epilepsy in children unresponsive to other treatment, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. The second are those for which cannabis can improve quality of life: Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stress and terminally ill patients. The third group includes conditions for which cannabis would be an experimental treatment, such as the use of its extract to kill cancer cells.
Tares said the latter two groups will be more open and flexible in terms of regulation, but all patients need to be under medical care, whether by certified professionals or licensed traditional practitioners.
He added that the departments overseeing both modern and traditional medicine are working on their own lists of diseases and specific treatments for them.
Under the landmark decriminalization legislation passed by the interim assembly in late December, the FDA has the authority to regulate the use and distribution of medical cannabis.
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