The Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF) is a nonprofit charitable organisation dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through funding research and the development of therapies for those currently suffering from Parkinson’s.
Founded by its namesake in 2000, the MJFF has donated over $900 million to research programs. However, it isn’t just funding that the Foundation provides, they are also advocates of new technologies and ideas.
Most recently the MJFF has petitioned Congress to pass three cannabis- and medical marijuana-related bills. Those being; The Medical Cannabis Research Act, VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act, and Expanding Cannabis Research and Information Act.
Combining these acts would reschedule marijuana from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 controlled substance, allow the VA to investigate the therapeutic potential of medical marijuana for conditions such as PTSD and require the Justice Department to start approval of more research-grade cannabis manufacturers.
Ted Thompson, senior vice president of public policy for the MJFF stated: “Removing barriers for research on medical cannabis is one way in which Congress can help scientists determine what the benefits of medical cannabis might be for Parkinson’s disease.”
Cannabis should be legal for any adult who wants to use it. What we put into our bodies is no business of government. There is no “medical marijuana,” there is just marijuana that some people use for medicinal purposes. But the history of intoxicants like marijuana is that they have primarily been used for comfort and pleasure. What’s wrong with that?
“A compleat suppression of every species of stimulating indulgence, if attainable at all, must be a work of peculiar difficulty, since it has to encounter not only the force of habit, but propensities in human nature. In every age & nation, some exhilarating or exciting substance seems to have been sought for, as a relief from the languor of idleness, or the fatigues of labor. In the rudest state of Society, whether in hot or cold climates, a passion for ardent spirits is in a manner universal. In the progress of refinement, beverages less intoxicating, but still of an exhilarating quality, have been more or less common. And where all these sources of excitement have been unknown or been totally prohibited by a religious faith, substitutes have been found in opium, in the nut of the betel, the root of the Ginseng, or the leaf of the Tobo. plant.” — James Madison, 1814