The American Medical Association (AMA) has formally endorsed drug decriminalization, adopting the policy position at its annual meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
AMA delegates voted in favor of the decriminalization proposal, 345-171. The body is calling for the \u201celimination of criminal penalties for drug possession for personal use as part of a larger set of related public health and legal reforms designed to improve carefully selected outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s actually a bolder position than what was included in the AMA Board of Trustees report that delegates initially took up. That prior policy statement simply said the organization should \u201ccontinue to monitor the legal and public health effects of state and federal policies to reclassify criminal offenses for drug possession for personal use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephen Taylor of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) proposed the revised language, MedPage Today reported<\/a>. ASAM, which has historically aligned itself with prohibitionists and resisted modest marijuana reforms, came out in favor of drug decriminalization last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n AMA\u2019s new drug decriminalization position builds upon a broader drug policy reform platform that has developed<\/a> over years. Last year, for example, the organization adopted positions advocating for psychedelics research, opposing the criminalization of kratom, calling for an end to the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine and supporting the continued inclusion of marijuana metabolites in employment-based drug tests.<\/p>\n In 2022, AMA delegates also voted to amend its policy position to support the expungement of past marijuana convictions<\/a>\u00a0in states that have legalized the plant.<\/p>\n The broad drug decriminalization proposal passed despite objections from the Board of Trustees, which said in a report prepared for the meeting that it \u201cbelieves that it is premature to recommend decriminalizing drug possession offenses as a public health benefit in the absence of evidence demonstrating public health benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n AMA President-elect Bobby Mukkamala, speaking on behalf of the board on Wednesday, said the organization\u2019s policy \u201cmust reflect the evidence, and currently, the evidence does not support broad decriminalization.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the board did recommend<\/a> adopting a policy supporting \u201cfederal and state efforts to expunge, at no cost to the individual, criminal records for drug possession for personal use upon completion of a sentence or penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n At Wednesday\u2019s meeting<\/a>, Ryan Englander, representing AMA\u2019s New England delegation, said the \u201cwar on drugs is quite reminiscent of the phrase, \u2018The beatings will continue until morale improves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have tried for decades to criminalize our way out of a substance use crisis in this country, and it has not worked,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to move to something different and better\u2014something that actually works.\u201d<\/p>\n He also pushed back on arguments that Oregon\u2019s since-rescinded drug decriminalization law is evidence<\/a> that the reform doesn\u2019t work, noting that there are other case studies such as Portugal where the policy has proved effective at reducing rates of addiction and overdose by taking a public health approach to the issue.<\/p>\n Taylor of ASAM said \u201cthere is, in fact, evidence that decriminalization can have public health benefits if it is done correctly. We would suggest that we have yet to see it done correctly\u201d in the U.S.<\/p>\n Marianne Parshley, a delegate for the American College of Physicians, said there are \u201cseveral things wrong\u201d with the assessment of Oregon\u2019s decriminalization experience, pointing out that the reform was implemented at a time when fentanyl started become prevalent in the illicit drug supply, exacerbating the overdose crisis nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s complex,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to pay attention to the fact that [the situation] doesn\u2019t instantaneously change if you pass decriminalization and support for treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n Doctor\u2019s Lawsuit Over Psilocybin For Cancer Patients Will Be Argued This Summer, With Separate Rescheduling Case Headed To Mediation<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post American Medical Association Endorses Drug Decriminalization<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The American Medical Association (AMA) has formally endorsed drug decriminalization, adopting the policy position at its annual meeting on Wednesday. AMA delegates voted in favor of the decriminalization proposal, 345-171. The body is calling for the \u201celimination of criminal penalties for drug possession for personal use as part of aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76286,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76285\/revisions\/76286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: American Medical Association Endorses Drug Decriminalization<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"