The Future of Medical Cannabis: Insights from Somai Pharmaceuticals CEO Michael Sassano
Discover insights from Michael Sassano, CEO of Somai Pharmaceuticals, a leading European cannabis pharmaceutical company, on the global landscape of medical cannabis and regulatory developments.
In recent years, optimism about the global landscape of medical cannabis and the direction of major regulatory agencies has been on the rise. The suffocating regulatory environment and political resistance that have hindered the development of the cannabis industry for years seem to be giving way to real progress.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a comprehensive 252-page report affirming the safety of cannabis. The health agency further pointed out the genuine potential of cannabis as a medicine to help alleviate at least 15 medical conditions. This event marks a significant turning point for the industry, as for decades, there has been a claim of insufficient evidence to support the safety and value of cannabis as a medicine.
Most who have read the report understand this. In fact, many believe that hostile, politically motivated, and biased authorities have been preventing hundreds of millions of people from accessing safer medicine. The report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services signifies a significant shift in regulatory stance.
Targeting Neuropathic Pain: A Move Away from Opioids
Let’s take a simple example: recognizing that cannabis can help alleviate neuropathic pain symptoms, often treated with opioid drugs. Can the epidemic of opioid drugs, which has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of addictions, be mitigated by embracing medical cannabis?
The report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unequivocally states that cannabis is a safer alternative to opioids, as it is less addictive and carries a much lower risk of overdose and adverse reactions than any opioid drug.
Regardless of any personal biases lawmakers may hold or societal or religious beliefs that may hinder advocacy for cannabis, this report clearly indicates that cannabis is a safer alternative to dangerous opioid drugs such as hydrocodone.
The Next Frontier in Medical Cannabis Development
Authorities must face the reality that both the document from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a wealth of anecdotal evidence suggest that cannabis is a safe and widely used therapeutic compound for a variety of medical conditions.
Current Cannabis Recommendations and Consumption
According to the document from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are 30,000 medical professionals in the United States recommending the use of medical cannabis, with over 6,000,000 patients reporting positive treatment outcomes. These statistics do not include the millions of adult consumers and countless unregulated market customers in the United States. These patients provide crucial evidence that cannabis can help individuals in various ways.
Reclassifying Cannabis: A Necessary Step
The question of whether cannabis should be classified as a drug, herb, or recreational product derived from novel foods is, quite simply, all of the above.
The Future of Cannabis Herbals
Accessing cannabis herbals is the safest and most politically correct route. As stated in the report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, people should have access to cannabis, and if regulated cannabis medications cannot be accessed safely, individuals may turn to the illegal market or opt for more harmful opioid drugs.
In conclusion, the floodgates have burst, and the deluge of the global medical cannabis explosion is imminent. We’ve amassed over 30,000 international clinical reports, hundreds of pages of reports on Canadian medical cannabis patients, and countless observational data and reports from adult consumers and medical cannabis patients in the United States. With recent news bolstering these robust data, the acknowledgment of cannabis’s safety and the plethora of medical benefits by even prominent health institutions mark an incredible development for the industry. We believe it’s only a matter of time before the global medical cannabis industry undergoes a positive transformation and experiences massive growth. In other words, the dam has broken, and the floodwaters are about to surge.
