Medical Marijuana in Their Book

Medical Marijuana

In their book Marihuana, the Forbidden Medicine, Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar (1997) advocate the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. According to the authors, prescription extractions of THC, the main psychoactive chemical in the cannabis sativa plant, simply aren't as effective of a medicine as marijuana itself. Compiling numerous case studies and testimonials, Grinspoon and Bakalar show how the marijuana plant can be a safe and effective treatment for diseases and conditions ranging from acute nausea to epilepsy, pain, and multiple sclerosis. Grinspoon and Bakalar's (1997) findings corroborate scores of scientific evidence pointing to the potential benefits of using marijuana to alleviate various physical ailments. In a National Academy Press publication funded by the American government, the Institute of Medicine's Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Health has definite therapeutic benefits can be used therapeutically (1999). For unknown political reasons, the American government has clung to its anti-drug campaign to the point of excluding and suppressing reliable scientific studies regarding the benefits of using marijuana therapeutically. Claims that marijuana is too dangerous are spurious; no known overdoses have ever been recorded and although the drug can be habit-forming, "few marijuana users develop dependence," and withdrawal symptoms are "mild and short-lived," (Joy, Watson, et al. 1999, p. 5). In smoked form, marijuana may not be a completely benign substance due to the respiratory problems that can occur when inhaling smoke of any type. Nevertheless, research shows that the potential physical benefits of marijuana outweigh the detriments.

Peer-reviewed studies testifying to the medical benefits of marijuana abound. Vinciguerra at al (1988) administered marijuana cigarettes to fifty-six cancer patients who had no success with prescription antiemetic drugs in relieving the nausea and vomiting resulting from chemotherapy. Participants suffered from a range of cancerous diseases, including breast cancer, lymphoma, lung cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, sarcoma, acute leukemia, and myeloma. A full 78% of the participants claimed the drug was moderately or very effective in reducing nausea, vomiting, and associated discomforts. The main side-effects associated with the administering of the marijuana included sedation and dry mouth; 13% of the participants reported no side-effects at all. The authors conclude that "inhalation marijuana is active in controlling nausea and vomiting resulting from chemotherapy," (Vinciguerra at al 1988, n/p). Furthermore, the results obtained in the study demonstrate the marked efficacy of inhaled marijuana: although the government has approved some synthetic extracts of THC, Vinciguerra et al. (1988) noted that "only 5-10% of orally administered THC is absorbed, whereas inhaled marijuana has a five-to tenfold greater bioavailability," (n/p).

Relief from nausea is not the only therapeutic application under investigation. Studies on pain relief, migraines, and stroke prevention have yielded preliminary but promising results. The Science of Medical Marijuana website refers to a 1997 study showing that "cannabinoids have a direct effect on pain signals in the central nervous system," but that "unlike the current crop of painkillers based on opiates, cannabinoids are not addictive, nor do they appear to carry the risk that patients may develop tolerance for them and require increasing doses to achieve relief," ("New, Emerging Evidence of Marijuana's Medical Efficacy"). THC and other compounds present in marijuana also act as antioxidants that may protect the brain from toxic chemical reactions such as those that occur with head injuries, strokes, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's disease ("New, Emerging Evidence"). Based on these sundry studies, marijuana should be immediately approved for use as medicine. Marijuana can be used for a number of therapeutic applications; the side-effects of the drug are apparently minimal; and addiction is rare if present at all. The same cannot be said for a number of prescription drugs that are used for some of the same purposes that marijuana might be used for. Furthermore, allowing individuals to grow their own marijuana for personal medical use would alleviate the medical insurance system and reduce overall health care costs for the individuals, for the government, and for health care institutions. An analogy can easily be made to the difference between purchasing a basil plant for $6 versus buying individual sprigs of basil at the grocery store for $2 each.

Medical marijuana aside, serious social, philosophical, and political problems are associated with keeping the drug illegal. First, there is a significant logical contradiction inherent in the legal status of marijuana vs. that of either alcohol or tobacco. Both alcohol and tobacco are widely known to be physically addictive and directly harmful and yet both alcohol and tobacco remain legal. Marijuana, on the other hand, has potential health benefits and is associated only with mild addictive symptoms but marijuana is illegal. The status of marijuana as an illegal substance makes no sense when it is compared with tobacco and/or alcohol.]

Second, the legal prohibition on alcohol in the early twentieth century, which culminated in a United States constitutional amendment, proved to be a dismal failure. Rather than create a more temperate society, the prohibition of alcohol allowed for the proliferation of organized crime and also caused people to resort to dangerous means of distilling alcohol illicitly. The marijuana prohibition has had similar effects: the buying and selling of marijuana enables organized crime syndicates to thrive by increasing their product diversity and marketing segments. Moreover, illegal methods of growing marijuana often entail using dangerous electrical wiring procedures for in-house hydroponic systems. Procuring marijuana illegally also exposes users to dangerous situations including street crimes.

Economically, the prohibition on marijuana makes no sense. A group of economists, including Harvard's Jeffrey Miron and Nobel Prize-winning Dr. Milton Friedman recently petitioned President Bush to change the legal status of marijuana for financial reasons. According to the economists, prohibition is costly as well as dangerous. Their study showed that "Revenue from taxation of marijuana sales would range from $2.4 billion per year if marijuana were taxed like ordinary consumer goods to $6.2 billion if it were taxed like alcohol or tobacco," (Miron 2005). Legalizing marijuana would also save the government as much as $7.7 billion in prohibition enforcement at federal, state, and local levels (Miron 2005).