{"id":301527,"date":"2018-11-07T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T05:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/uncategorized\/doctors-can-now-prescribe-fda-approved-drug-derived-from-cannabis.php"},"modified":"2018-11-07T00:00:32","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T05:00:32","slug":"doctors-can-now-prescribe-fda-approved-drug-derived-from-cannabis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/futurism\/doctors-can-now-prescribe-fda-approved-drug-derived-from-cannabis.php","title":{"rendered":"Doctors Can Now Prescribe FDA-Approved Drug Derived From Cannabis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p><h2>Marijuana Medication<\/h2><p>Just a few decades ago, the idea of a medical use for cannabis was little more than a pipe dream. Now, there&rsquo;s a cannabis-derived drug on the market that doctors can prescribe as readily as any other medication.<\/p><p>As of Thursday, doctors in the nation are free to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90261536\/the-first-fda-approved-cannabis-based-drug-is-now-available\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prescribe patients Epidiolex<\/a>, making it the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/NewsEvents\/Newsroom\/PressAnnouncements\/ucm611046.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first drug<\/a> on the market specifically designed to treat a rare form of childhood epilepsy. It&rsquo;s also the first prescribable cannabis-derived drug.<\/p><h2>First Step<\/h2><p>In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of&nbsp;Epidiolex to treat treat two rare forms of epilepsy that manifest during childhood:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ghr.nlm.nih.gov\/condition\/lennox-gastaut-syndrome\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lennox-Gastaut syndrome<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dravetfoundation.org\/what-is-dravet-syndrome\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dravet syndrome.<\/a><\/p><p>While a few treatments for the former were already available, none existed for the latter. Epidiolex showed remarkable promise during trials, though,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/epidiolex-fda-committee-marijuana-drug\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reducing seizures<\/a> by up to 40 percent.<\/p><h2>Final Step<\/h2><p>Even though the FDA approved Epidiolex in June, prescribing it was still illegal because the Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all forms of cannabis as a Schedule I drug&nbsp;&mdash; the same category that heroin and LSD fall under.<\/p><p>That changed on September 27 when the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/fda-approved-drug-epidiolex-placed-schedule-v-controlled-substances-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DEA classified&nbsp;Epidiolex<\/a> as a Schedule V drug. That classification means that&nbsp;doctors in all 50 states are now&nbsp;as free to prescribe&nbsp;Epidiolex as they are&nbsp;cough suppressants containing small amount of codeine.<\/p><p>The&nbsp;cannabis-derived drug has already improve the lives of many of the young patients who participated in its trials, and now that it&rsquo;s widely available, it has the opportunity to improve many more.<\/p><p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90261536\/the-first-fda-approved-cannabis-based-drug-is-now-available\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The First FDA-Approved Cannabis-Based Drug Is Now Available<\/a> [Fast Company]<\/p><p><em><strong>More on Epidiolex:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/the-byte\/epidiolex-fda-approval-cannabis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Digest: A Marijuana-Derived Medication Is Now Approved for Sale in the US<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2018\/11\/cannabis-derived-drug-approved-1200x630.png\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/p><p>Continue reading here:<br><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/cannabis-derived-drug-approved\" title=\"Doctors Can Now Prescribe FDA-Approved Drug Derived From Cannabis\">Doctors Can Now Prescribe FDA-Approved Drug Derived From Cannabis<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Marijuana Medication Just a few decades ago, the idea of a medical use for cannabis was little more than a pipe dream. Now, there\u2019s a cannabis-derived drug on the market that doctors can prescribe as readily as any other medication. As of Thursday, doctors in the nation are free to prescribe patients Epidiolex , making it the first drug on the market specifically designed to treat a rare form of childhood epilepsy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/futurism\/doctors-can-now-prescribe-fda-approved-drug-derived-from-cannabis.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}