More and more support continues to come out for the medical marijuana industry, so why is the federal government the only ones not seeing what is going on?

October 26, 2011 — The California Medical Association (CMA) has adopted an official policy calling for the legalization and regulation of cannabis, which, it says, will facilitate wider clinical research on the drug.

"CMA may be the first organization of its kind to take this position, but we won't be the last. This was a carefully considered, deliberative decision made exclusively on medical and scientific grounds," said James T. Hay, MD, president of the CMA, in a release.

"As physicians, we need to have a better understanding about the benefits and risks of medicinal cannabis so we can provide the best care possible to our patients."

The CMA notes that clinicians in California, where cannabis is decriminalized, are often in a catch-22 situation. Under the decriminalization rules, they can only "recommend" the substance for medical purposes, but there are no processes in place to address this.

Dr. Paul Phinney

"We need to regulate cannabis so we know what we're recommending to our patients," Paul Phinney, MD, president-elect of the CMA, told Medscape Medical News.