Doctor of Medical Marijuana has Passed Away
Medical marijuana has been in use for a number of years around the United States. The grandfather of medical marijuana was Dr. Tod Mikuriya, who was a California psychiatrist. He died at the age of 73 due to complications with cancer.
Dr. Mikuriya was one of the primary advocates for making marijuana legal for medicinal purposes in the state of California. The last four decades of his life was spent publicly advocating the health benefits of marijuana. He produced a significant amount of research on the topic and wrote articles that were published in many mainstream magazines and medical journals around the globe. He was also the creator of Proposition 215, which was produced in 1996 to go on the state ballot to make it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients who were very ill. Once it was approved, he became a “savior” of sorts to many. He commonly wrote a dozen or more prescriptions each day to patients and is believed to have approved marijuana for almost 9,000 patients through his medical career.
Much of Dr. Mikuriya’s work was criticized. He went head to head with a number of medical groups and associations who wanted to discredit his work to say that it was not right to authorize an illegal drug to patients because they had medical problems. They used such arguments as addiction and brain damage against him.
In many instances, the doctor’s research spoke for him. Research has shown marijuana to be effective for a number of different ailments of the body including glaucoma, side effects for chemotherapy, digestive issues and many other problems.
While Dr. Mikuriya has passed on, his research still lives. There are many more states that have legalized medicinal marijuana and many more states that have the issue on their state ballots. New research comes out monthly to support his claims.
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