Journal de génétique végétale et de sélection

Abstrait

Technologies required to promote change in the cannabis medical field

Roberto Paleco

The use of medicinal cannabis has increased in the last decade with a large number of countries reviewing their legislation recently. Cannabinoids can be used for a large variety of conditions and it is already changing people lives. Despite recent changes in the global mentality and vision of cannabis, there is still a long way to go. The use of this therapeutic plant still faces limitations due to different economic and political reasons, and require a change in the approach from both the Cannabis industry and researchers to work together into creating new hope.

Our duty as medical researchers is to deliver superi­or medical products and facilitate its access to a larger number of patients. The current misuse of cannabinoids, the high dosage and therapy costs, as well as the safety concerns, translates into concerns by health professionals in prescribing these medicines. In countries that canna­bis have been legalized, one of the major limitations of medical cannabis therapies is related to the inadequate products present in the market. These products lack ap­propriate technology and medical knowledge, despite the high level of innovation and excellence existent in the medical industry. This issue limits the prescription of this medicine in different ways, reducing patient access and discouraging health professionals. The use of sci­entific-proven cannabinoids or extracts in combination with pharmaceutical technologies will create the real in­tegration or replacement of cannabis in current medical therapies.