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As of April 2015, 23 states and Washington D.C. have legalized cannabis for medical use〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=23 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC - Medical Marijuana - ProCon.org )〕 as voter or legislative driven initiatives bypassing the normal Food and Drug Administration testing for safety and efficacy. Seven states have pending legislation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=9 States with Pending Legislation to Legalize Medical Marijuana - Medical Marijuana - ProCon.org )〕 In the United States, there are important legal differences between medical cannabis at the federal and state levels. At the federal level, cannabis ''per se'' has been made criminal by implementation of the Controlled Substances Act, but as of 2009, new federal guidelines have been enacted. According to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, "It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Attorney General Announces Formal Medical Marijuana Guidelines - OPA - Department of Justice )〕 California passed an initiative to allow medical cannabis in 1996. In the intervening years, multiple states have passed similar initiatives. A January 2010 ABC News poll showed that 81 percent of Americans believed that medical cannabis should be legal in the United States. Most recently, in April 2015 Georgia became the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana not including DC; however the marijuana cannot be smoked.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Georgia Gov. Deal signs medical marijuana bill into law )〕 On December 16, 2014, Congress and the Obama Administration "quietly" ended the federal prohibition on medical marijuana. ==Overview== The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 makes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the sole government entity responsible for ensuring the safety and efficacy of new prescription and over-the-counter drugs, overseeing the labeling and marketing of drugs, and regulating the manufacturing and packaging of drugs.〔(Drug Approval Application Process )〕 The FDA defines a drug as safe and effective for a specific indication if the clinical benefits to the patient are felt to outweigh any health risks the drug might pose. The FDA and comparable authorities in Western Europe, including the Netherlands, have not approved ''smoked'' cannabis (partly because of the problems related to smoking ''per se'' and the inherent crudeness of it as an effective and dosed delivery mechanism) for any condition or disease.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine )〕 Indeed, the FDA has not approved medical cannabis in any form for any indication. Cannabis remains illegal throughout the United States and is not approved for prescription as medicine, although 23 states— Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—as well as the District of Columbia approve and regulate its medical use. (The Federal government continues to enforce its prohibition in these states.) Cannabis also remains a U.S. federally controlled substance, making possession and distribution illegal. Those seeking to acquire medical cannabis may have to resort to the black market in order to obtain the product if their state does not allow the existence of legal dispensaries. However, in some states—such as Colorado—legal dispensaries are plentiful, and there is no need to resort to the black market. Two American (for-profit) companies, Cannabis Science Inc., and Medical Marijuana, Inc., are working towards getting FDA approval for cannabis based medicines (including smoked cannabis). Cannabis Science Inc. wants to have medical cannabis approved by the FDA so anyone, regardless of state, will have access to the medicine. Also, there is one non-profit organization, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) working towards getting Cannabis approved by the FDA for PTSD. The process for applying to do research is openly published,〔http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm421173.htm〕 yet little formal FDA peer reviewed scientific research has been conducted. One firm, GW Pharmaceuticals - manufacturers of Sativex for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (the only marijuana based compound approved by any industrialized nation), is headquartered in the United Kingdom and is doing operations under review of the UK's Department of Health. GW Pharma claims the process for research approval is simpler in the UK and has stated their belief UK approval of compounds could be a springboard to make the US process easier for them. Cannabis was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia from 1850 until 1942. The United States Federal government does not currently recognize any legitimate medical use, although there are currently four patients receiving cannabis for their various illnesses through the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program that was closed to new patients in 1991 by the George H. W. Bush administration. Twenty three U.S. state laws, as well as the District of Columbia, currently allow for the medicinal use of cannabis,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=23 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC )〕 but the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Federal government has the right to regulate and criminalize cannabis also in these states, even for medical purposes. The term "medical marijuana" post-dates the U.S. Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Enacted by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, the tax act made cannabis prescriptions illegal in the United States. Since the creation of the DEA, the agency has spent over US$100 billion trying stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. States that have legalized marijuana have seen an increase in revenue though taxation. For example, in 2008, the state of Hawaii made over US$10 million through taxation of medical marijuana. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Medical cannabis in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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