The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of a marijuana-based drug for the first time, which is different from the use of medical marijuana.
Stigmatized for decades, marijuana awaited medical research that could prove its effectiveness in conditions such as cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis.
Now, for the first time, the FDA has approved a prescription drug made from marijuana for epilepsy, writes the British Independent.
The drug contains cannabidiol, which is only one of about 80 chemical compounds found in the marijuana plant.
The medicine called epidiolex is a liquid syrup, and it is the first medical product for which approval has been obtained that a specific component of marijuana can be used in its production.
The syrup should prevent epileptic attacks in patients, and children as young as two years old will be able to consume it.
"This represents a great advance for medicine, but at the same time it is not an approval of marijuana and all its components," explained FDA official Scott Gottlieb, B92 reports.
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