West Virginia's medical cannabis program is designed to treat a specific list of chronic and terminal conditions, but a proposed limit could significantly curb the plant's strength. On September 8, the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board will hear a proposal to cap the THC in the state's medical cannabis products at 10 percent.
Dr. Libby Stuyt is an addiction psychiatrist in Colorado. She presented the science to the board's Health and Medical Workgroup meeting on August 17. Stuyt drew from multiple clinical studies to show there is no evidence that THC levels over 10 percent pose any medical benefit.
While medical cannabis patients and advocates may not have rigorous double-blind research to back up their claims, they do have their own lived experiences with the plant's effects on their conditions. They argue such conclusions on the efficacy of medical cannabis are based on decades of misunderstanding and limited research.
"I understand that there are some people that high THC levels do affect negatively," Williams said. "But there's also a ton of patients out there that need those high THC levels. So why are we trying to cap and bring, you know, and basically put all of the products on the exact same level when we know for a fact that the medical efficacy of high THC is effective for a lot of folks."
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