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Malaysia’s Health Minister Is In Need Of Cannabis Research Partners

By Frank Schuler

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Despite what cannabis opponents and some skeptics may claim, the cannabis plant has been the subject of considerable scientific study. To be fair, the cannabis plant was not studied as much as it should have been in some parts of the world due to prohibition, such as in the United States. However, there’s still a considerable number of global studies already on the books.

PubMed.gov houses an enormous amount of peer-reviewed research on all types of topics, including cannabis. For example, a search for the word ‘cannabis’ in the database yields 28,160 results for peer-reviewed studies, as seen in the image below:

Pubmed cannabis

A search for the term ‘marijuana’ returns even more results – 39,928 as of this article’s posting. A search for ‘CBD’ returns 9,505 results. More research regarding cannabis and cannabinoids is always welcomed, however, it’s always worth noting that there is already a tremendous amount of research in existence, especially in recent years.

With all of that in mind, it’s always perplexing to me when lawmakers and other government officials in some countries continue to use the ‘we need more research’ as a footdragging excuse to refrain from pursuing meaningful medical cannabis reform.

A recent example of that seems to be potentially on display in Malaysia where the nation’s Minister of Health is pointing to the lack of research being conducted specifically in his country and the need for research partnerships. Below is more about it via excerpts from an article posted by The Rakyat Post:

The Health Ministry is ready to collaborate with any parties to study the usage of marijuana and cannabis in medicine. Its minister Khairy Jamalauddin Abu Bakar said that while there is a lot of advocacy of late on the medicinal use of marijuana, the fact remains that there have been no full submissions for a clinical study or trial on the subject.

“@KKMPutrajaya (MOH) welcomes industry or academia initiated research for the medicinal use of CBD (cannabidiol). We are ready to collaborate,” tweets Khairy.

The Rembau MP also added that MOH has been consistent in practicing evidence-based policies. “That’s why we have welcomed clinical studies for the use of CBD for medicinal purposes.”

To be clear, when the minister indicates that ‘there have been no full submissions for a clinical study or trial on the subject, he is obviously referring only to studies and trials in his home country, as there is plenty of readily-available research from other countries.

Quality cannabis researchers need to take the minister up on his offer. In a perfect world, Malaysia would get on the right side of history immediately and recognize the body of scientific research and personal patient experiences that already exists.

However, if the minister wants more research and the government of Malaysia is actually willing to work in good faith to help in meaningful ways to facilitate cannabis research, then by all means scientists and companies should pounce on the opportunity.

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