(a) The General Assembly finds and declares that the potential medicinal value of marijuana has received insufficient study due to a lack of financial incentives for the undertaking of appropriate research by private drug manufacturing concerns. Individual physicians cannot feasibly utilize marijuana in clinical trials because of federal governmental controls which involve expensive, time-consuming approval and monitoring procedures.

(b) The General Assembly further finds and declares that limited studies throughout the nation indicate that marijuana and certain of its derivatives possess valuable and, in some cases, unique therapeutic properties, including the ability to relieve nausea and vomiting which routinely accompany chemotherapy and irradiation used to treat cancer patients. Marijuana also may be effective in reducing intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients who do not respond well to conventional medications.

(c) The General Assembly further finds and declares that, in enabling individual physicians and their patients to participate in a state-sponsored program for the investigational use of marijuana and its derivatives, qualified physicians and surgeons throughout the state will be able to study the benefits of the drug in a controlled clinical setting, and additional knowledge will be gained with respect to dosage and effects.

(d) It is the intent of the General Assembly in enacting this article to permit research into the therapeutic applications of marijuana and its derivatives in cancer and glaucoma patients. This would allow qualified physicians approved by the Patient Qualification Review Board created by Code Section 43-34-124 to provide the drug on a compassionate basis to seriously ill persons suffering from the severe side effects of chemotherapy or radiation treatment and to persons suffering from glaucoma who are not responding to conventional treatment, which persons would otherwise have no lawful access to it. It is the further intent of the General Assembly to facilitate clinical trials of marijuana and its derivatives, particularly with respect to persons suffering from cancer and glaucoma who would be benefited by use of the drug.

(e) This article is limited to clinical trials and research into therapeutic applications of marijuana only for use in treating glaucoma and in treating the side effects of chemotherapeutic agents and radiation and should not be construed as either encouraging or sanctioning the social use of marijuana. Nothing in this article shall be construed to encourage the use of marijuana in lieu of or in conjunction with other accepted medical treatment, but only as an adjunct to such accepted medical treatment.