U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murth recently conceded that the benefits of using marijuana for medicinal purposes is something worth taking seriously.

Surgeon General On Medical Marijuana

“We have some preliminary data showing that for certain medical conditions and symptoms that marijuana can be helpful,” Murthy told CBS This Morning Wednesday. “So I think we have to use that data to drive policymaking, and I’m very interested to see where that data takes us.”

During his Senate confirmation a year ago, Murphy had said he wouldn’t go so far as to recommend marijuana use, but was interested in looking into the science behind its medicinal possibilities. “My position is we have to see what the science tells us about the efficacy of marijuana, and I think we’re going to get a lot more data on that,” Murthy said at the time.

President Barack Obama hasn’t shied away from his own past of recreational marijuana use, and has even admitted his belief that smoking marijuana is comparable to drinking alcohol.

“As has been well-documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” Obama told The New Yorker. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”
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