New research findings from Europe show that marijuana can help with chronic back pain.
The German company that ran the study says it expects to get approval to market the drug over there in a few months. That won’t be true in the U.S. — the company tells NPR it is being required to repeat the studies in the U.S. before seeking approval from regulators here. Because cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug, running large research trials comes with many obstacles, meaning it will likely be years before that additional research gets completed.