WASHINGTON -- Overprescribing is a key reason for the current opioid abuse epidemic, several speakers said here.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguayan pharmacies on Thursday criticized the government’s plan to allow the sale of marijuana for recreational use in their stores.

In an announcement last week, the government said cannabis will go on sale in pharmacies within eight months, following the granting of licenses to two companies to grow cannabis for commercial sale, in accordance with a 2013 law.

But pharmacies must “work for the health of the population,” and “the use of psychoactive substances for recreational use, whether legal or not, is detrimental to health,” the Chemistry and Pharmacy Association of Uruguay (AQFU) argued in a statement.

The newspaper El País said 120 pharmacies in the capital Montevideo are interested in selling marijuana.

Canadian doctors should use medical marijuana instead of frequently abused opioids to treat patients with neuropathic pain and a host of other conditions cannabis has been proven to combat, Vancouver-based HIV/AIDS researchers argue in a newly published editorial.

Thomas Kerr, Julio Montaner and Stephanie Lake of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS argue the Canadian Medical Association is holding pot to a higher standard than other pain-relieving pharmaceutical drugs and is ignoring high-quality, peer-reviewed studies on the use of cannabis. Their editorial is in the latest edition of the Journal of the Canadian Public Health Association.

VANCOUVER - The Canadian Medical Association and the federal government apply a far more rigid standard to prescribing marijuana than other drugs, resulting in negative - or even deadly - consequences, say experts from the B.C. Centre for Excellent in HIV/AIDS.

Medical marijuana is held to a different standard than other prescription drugs despite research suggesting it has therapeutic benefits, say three experts from the centre in a commentary published Friday in the Journal of the Canadian Public Health Association.

"When it comes to prescription marijuana, patients' needs should be considered above political considerations," Dr. Julio Montaner, one of the authors, said in a news release. "There could be great harm in ignoring the medical uses of marijuana."

Victorian pharmacists will play a pivotal role under proposals announced by the Victorian Government to make medicinal cannabis available to some patients under exceptional circumstances from 2017, says the PSA.

Acting National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Michelle Lynch, says that under the new regulations, pharmacists will dispense medicinal cannabis after authorisation is provided by medical specialists.

“Having pharmacists acknowledged as best-placed to dispense medicinal cannabis is welcomed as it ensures that medicines experts are available to advise and counsel patients using these products,” Lynch says.

People taking medicinal cannabis will need to be given advice about the potential long-term side-effects, an expert says.

Dr Michael Farrell, director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, says the report on which the Victorian Government’s decision was based was “very well crafted and detailed presenting a balanced view of current research evidence and presents options for moving forward and for improving access to treatment”.

“However if medical use is likely to be long term, patients should be advised that the adverse effects of long term use are unclear,” he says.

A former Navy SEAL makes the case for why the federal ban on medical marijuana needs to be lifted.

High out-of-pocket costs may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle for patients seeking medical marijuana. While the treatment has been legalized, the state has not set a price for it, and insurance companies will not be covering it.

As a result, people like Angel won't have access.

"My story is a long story."

Actually, Angel's not his real name, but we're using it for reasons that will become clear in a minute. Angel's been in Rochester for thirty years, before that, Puerto Rico. In 2006, Angel found out he was HIV positive. But, that isn't the only health problem he struggles with.

"I have chronic back pain, I have arthritis, osteoarthritis, sickle cell, other than my HIV. So, all those together, every disease brings a little bit of pain."

BARCELONA -- Multiple sclerosis patients taking the oromucosal cannabis-based spray called Sativex in routine practice to relieve spasticity are getting approximately the same degree of benefit expected from the product's formal trials, according to interim results from two observational studies from Italy reported here.

Modest but statistically significant improvement in spasticity scores (10-point Numerical Rating Scale, NRS) has been seen among 322 patients who added Sativex to standard anti-spasticity drugs and/or physical therapy, according to a group led by Maria Trojano, MD, of the University of Bari, whose ongoing study is called MOVE 2 and who reported data from the first 3 months after enrollment.

Victoria is set to become the first state in Australia to legalise cannabis for medical use.

In a controversial plan, the Andrews government is taking steps to make the drug available for terminally ill people.

While many are welcoming the move, others are deeply sceptical, calling for more research into the long-term effects of medicinal cannabis use.

In a national first, the use of medicinal cannabis could soon be legal in Victoria.

The state government has announced plans to embark on what it says is Australia's first-ever cannabis cultivation trial.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is delivering on an election commitment to make medicinal cannabis available for terminally ill people.