The Medical Cannabis & Cannabinoid Act
The Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoid Act (MCCA) is a groundbreaking proposal developed by Americans for Safe Access with input from patient organizations, regulators, researchers, and medical professionals. Its enactment will bridge the gap between research, the experience of patients, product development, and medical professional education to better serve patient populations and will unify medical cannabis and cannabinoid policies. MCCA will centralize medical oversight, providing the necessary framework to support the evolving landscape of medical cannabis while ensuring that all Americans have access to the therapeutic benefits of cannabis with high safety standards.
Cannabis-based therapies provide relief to millions of Americans, often serving as a crucial alternative when conventional treatments have failed or as a safer option compared to medications.
The most efficacious cannabis and cannabinoid therapeutics are currently only available outside of U.S. healthcare systems, creating significant barriers for individuals and medical professionals to utilize these treatments.
The FDA approval process does not currently accommodate plant-based medicines whose efficacy depends on multi-compound/multi-target formulations.
The positive impacts of medical cannabis on patients and the healthcare systems that serve them are profound and far-reaching. Today, cannabis-based therapies provide relief to over 6 million Americans registered in medical cannabis programs in 39 states, D.C., and four of the five U.S. territories, often serving as a crucial alternative when conventional treatments have failed or as a safer option compared to pharmaceuticals.
States have shown that medical cannabis programs enhance patient outcomes and alleviate burdens on the healthcare systems that serve them. However, state-level medical cannabis programs operate independently of the broader healthcare system and outside of federal laws and regulations, leaving behind veterans, federal employees, and patients who live in reluctant states or who can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs of these products, serving only a privileged class of Americans.
For over a decade, Congress has allowed medical cannabis programs to exist in a legal limbo, prohibiting federal agencies from interfering by enforcing federal cannabis laws. This solution shields patients and providers from federal prosecution but does not address patients’ rights to access essential government services, their right to gun ownership, their ability to utilize cannabis treatments in hospices, hospitals, and assisted living facilities, or their right to travel or relocate for better employment opportunities or to pursue higher education.
These issues will not be addressed by rescheduling alone or by legalizing cannabis for adult-use purposes. Criminal penalties are only one of the many issues facing patients. The state experiments have shown that patients lose when forced to compete with adult-use consumers for policy protections and product supply. Furthermore, without federal policies that foster access, patients will always be subject to attacks from the anti-marijuana lobby in DC, which is experiencing a resurgence, jeopardizing any progress on medical cannabis policy and federal patient protections.
Patients have teed up Congress to pass comprehensive medical cannabis legislation: we have created cannabis product safety protocols for human consumption, debunked the "gateway" myth, engaged the World Health Organization (WHO) to recognize cannabis's therapeutic uses, successfully advocated for cannabis rescheduling in drug treaties at the United Nations, and generated the data needed for HHS and FDA to find that cannabis has accepted medical use.
In collaboration with healthcare stakeholders, cannabis experts, and policy advisors, we have developed a legislative proposal for a national medical cannabis program. The proposal introduces a new scheduling category for cannabis and cannabinoids, designated Schedule VI, and establishes the Office of Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoid Control (OMC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The OMC would be entrusted with crafting and implementing regulations to facilitate the integration of cannabis treatments into the national healthcare infrastructure.
The OMC will have the authority and resources necessary to coordinate federal agencies, harmonize product safety protocols, develop a centralized licensing and registration authority for the supply chain of all cannabis and cannabinoid products, including synthetic and isolates, and issue classification guidelines for over-the-counter vs. controlled access products (Schedule VI (A) vs. Schedule VI). Additionally, the OMC would issue product and system guidelines for compassionate use prescriptions and the framework for full-spectrum cannabis-based products to achieve evidence-based health claims.
We know that cannabis medicines are changing lives, but federal laws must change to ensure everyone has safe, reliable access. Patients need champions in Congress to make this happen.
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