Anecdotal evidence about the potential benefits of medical cannabis abounds; however, rigorous clinical research that informs treatment is sorely lacking. A number of reasons can account for this lack of clinical research: obstructive policies, lack of products that meet the definition of medicine, and social stigma. For legitimate patients to benefit from potential therapies, we must legitimize the medical cannabis industry. But, conventional pharma development is likely not the best approach, nor even feasible, in the case of assessing the potential value and risks associated with cannabinoid preparations, because a large majority of patients already have access to it. Unfortunately, however, legitimate patients are currently accessing cannabis through trial and error. This approach clearly has disadvantages, the two most obvious being a lack of applicability to other patients and the burden of a trial and error approach on ill patients.
The future of legitimate medical cannabis use must include the generation of meaningful clinical data. Generating this data will depend on: cannabinoid preparations with defined chemical composition and doses; standardized regulations governing the safety of medical cannabis preparations; critical pharmacovigilance data; clinical research protocols for the treatment of specific disease-related symptoms and diseases; participation by physicians trained in the disease being investigated; development of a credible source of accurate information.