Marijuana For Use In Legitimate Medical Research example essay topic

... ng some medicines and fatigue.. SET AND SETTING The responsible cannabis user will carefully consider his / her set and setting, regulating use accordingly. IV. RESIST ABUSE Use of cannabis, to the extent that it impairs health, personal development or achievement, is abuse, to be resisted by responsible cannabis users. V. RESPECT RIGHTS OF OTHERS The responsible cannabis user does not violate the rights of others, observes accepted standards of courtesy and public property, and respects preferences of those who wish to avoids cannabis entirely. ' ; -Testimony of R. Keith Stroup on behalf of NORML before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Judiciary Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, on March 6, 1996 In November 1996, the people of California approved proposition 215, an initiative that could, in effect, make marijuana legally available as a medicine in the United States for the first time in many years. Under this new law, patients or their primary caregivers that possess or cultivate marijuana for medical treatment recommended by a physician are exempted from criminal prosecution.

The treatment may be for 'cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief. ' ; Physicians may not be penalized in any way for recommendation, which may be either written or oral. The passage of this law is only the beginning of a trend that presents new challenges for physicians, who will be asked to assume responsibilities for which many have not prepared themselves. As more and more patients approach them with questions about marijuana, they will have to provide answers and make recommendations.

That means they must not only listen more carefully to their patients but also educate themselves and one another. They will have to learn which symptoms and disorders may be treated better with marijuana than with conventional medications, and they may need to explain how to use marijuana. Cannabis is a strikingly safe, versatile and potentially inexpensive medicine. When reviewing its medical uses in 1993 after examining many patients and case histories, the following are those diseases, disorders, and pains that were immensely helped by marijuana: nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy, the weight loss syndrome of AIDS, glaucoma, epilepsy, muscle spasms and chronic pain in multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia, and other spastic disorders, migraine, severe pruritus, depression, and other mood disorders.

Since then, a dozen more have been identified, including asthma, insomnia, dystonia, scleroderma, Crohn's disease, diabetic gastro paresis, and terminal illness. For example, cannabis has also been found useful in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Aspirin is believed to have caused more than 1,000 deaths annually in the United States. More than 7,600 annual deaths and 70,000 hospitalizations caused by non- ant-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are reported. Gastrointestinal complications of NSAIDs are the most commonly reported serious adverse drug reaction. Long term acetaminophen use is thought to be one of the most common causes of end-stage renal disease.

Cannabis smoked several times a day is often as effective as NSAIDs or acetaminophen's in osteoarthritis, and there have been no reports of death from cannabis. It is often objected that the evidence of marijuana's medical usefulness, although powerful, is merely anecdotal. It is true that there are no studies meeting the standards of the Food and Drug Administration, chiefly because legal, bureaucratic, and financial obstacles are constantly put in the way. The situation is ironical, since so much research has been done on marijuana, often in unsuccessful efforts to show health hazards and addictive potential, that we know more about it than about most prescription drugs.

In any case, controlled studies can be misleading if the wrong patients are studies or the wrong doses are used, and idiosyncratic therapeutic responses can be obscured in group experiments. The chief legitimate concern is the effect of smoking on the lungs. Many physicians find it difficult to endorse a smoked medicine. Although cannabis smoke carries even more tabs and other particulate matter than tobacco smoke, the amount needed by most patients is extremely limited. Furthermore, when marijuana is an openly recognized medicine, solutions for this problem may be found, perhaps by the development of a technique for inhaling vapors. Even today, the greatest danger of using marijuana is not impurities in the smoke, but illegality, which imposes much unnecessary anxiety and expense on suffering people.

A synthetic version of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main active substance in cannabis, has been available in oral form for limited purposes as a Schedule II drug since 1985. Both patients generally regard this medicine, (Marinol), and physicians as less effective than smoked marijuana. A patient who is severely nauseated and constantly vomiting, for example, may find it almost impossible to keep a pill or capsule down. Oral THC is erratically and slowly absorbed into the bloodstream; the dose and duration of action of smoked marijuana are easier to titrate. Furthermore, oral THC occasionally makes many patients anxious and uncomfortable, possibly because of, one of the many substances in marijuana, has an effect.

Besides their direct responsibility to individual patients with respect to medical marijuana, physicians have another obligation that is social and ultimately political. Jerome P. Kaiser has identified it in his recent New England Journal of Medicine editorial entitled 'Federal Foolishness and Marijuana. ' ; He describes the governments policies on medical marijuana as 'hypocritical'; and predicts that physicians who 'have the courage to challenge the continued prescription of marijuana for the sick'; will eventually force the government to reach some sort of accommodation. That important task will inevitably fall to the younger generation of doctors, including present and future medical students. 'Marijuana's claimed healing power with regards to glaucoma, cancer, and pain relief have not been proven by scientific studies.

Because of its damaging effects to the brain and lungs, marijuana should be considered a health hazard, not a medicine. The media should fully inform the public about the dangers of smoking marijuana. ' ; -Dr. Paul Leith bert, substance abuse specialist. There has been more extensive research on marijuana over the past 40 years than on any other substance. Cannabinoids from a single marijuana cigarette deposit in the fatty tissue of the body (brain, testes, ovaries, etc.) and remain there for three to four weeks.

Repeated use of the drug produces THC storage in these vital organs for months. By contrast, when alcohol is consumed it is metabolized in a few hours. Contrary to the arguments of its advocates, marijuana is physically and psychologically addictive. Additionally, when a user stops he experiences withdrawal symptoms.

Also, myriads of psychological symptoms develop as use becomes chronic. When a joint is inhaled, over 2,000 noxious chemicals invade the lungs. Users typically 'toke'; , holding the smoke in their lungs to enhance the absorption of THC. This produces more rapid lung damage than smoking tobacco. Marijuana and tobacco share the same chemical compounds (except for the), but somehow cigarettes are deemed the more deadly, while pot is touted as a medical necessity.

The high from pot has been described by its users as a euphoria, a pleasant, relaxed escape that causes one to become self-absorbed and to pay less attention to his surroundings. The anticipations of these sensations is the major reason for use. And with repeated use, one's ability to think becomes dulled, concentration is more difficult, and pathological thinking develops. The ability to perform tasks-especially new ones-diminishes, the memory becomes impaired, the sense of time is altered, and an inertia or lack of motivation develops. In many users, an anti motivational syndrome sets in.

Chronic users often develop such problems as emotional instability, difficulty in absorbing and integrating new information, and decreased work performance. As the brain's 'pleasure center'; becomes exhausted, users have difficulty in experiencing pleasure and often put forth less effort to socialize. Users go from a sense of suspiciousness to a full-blown paranoia-and, eventually, to total 'burnout. ' ; In spite of the documented side effects associated with marijuana use, it has nonetheless been promoted as useful in the treatment of an amazing variety of ailments. Unfortunately, the truth about marijuana's effectiveness in treating physical maladies is completely overblown: Glaucoma.

Proponents claim pot smoking lowers the pressure in the eyes of glaucoma patients. A small pressure drop does occur in some patients when marijuana is used two to four hours around the clock. This would mean, of course, that the user would be constantly stoned. In many users the pressure increases, however, and recent research indicates that marijuana users have a decreased circulation to the optic nerve-a serious problem.

Also, there have been medications available for years that are as effective as marijuana and that have minimal side effects. Cancer. Marijuana is advocated to fight nausea in patients receiving intensive chemotherapy. But it is really no better than the many safer anti-nauseates available. Also marijuana has been found to damage the immune-system, which is important in fighting cancer and other serious ailments like AIDS, infection, etc. Pain.

Marijuana is not an analgesic. For example, users frequently have toothaches which are not relieved with their marijuana smoking; they require the standard pain killers. Marijuana is not helpful in fighting other kinds of pain either. In short, all the 'medical uses'; for marijuana, including asthma, seizures, multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms, etc., are really just excuses to get high. Some users may be under the delusion they are being helped, but marijuana users typically smoke for the THC while still taking the standard medications for their disease. Synthetic delta-9 THC (Marinol) is available by prescription for some conditions and is effective.

Marijuana users say they prefer the side effects from cannabis to the side effects of prescription drugs, however. In essence, then, rather than being a medicine, marijuana is a health hazard. Who would call a drug 'recreational'; if they realized that chronic use caused permanent brain damage? Marijuana use is never cited by proponents as a factor in high school dropout and failure rates, as well as the increase in promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases.

Such is the case, however. Another area they ignore is the dramatic effect cannabis has on the ability for one to drive a car safely. Not only is the driver impaired in major ways while high, but for hours after the high wears off. Why are these important facts not better understood by the public? For more than 35 years the media have suppressed information on cannabis. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) published an annual report on 'Marijuana and Health'; for many years-each issue cataloguing the increasing THC content of the weed and the dramatic research findings on damage to the users body.

These reports have been ignored by the media, although all levels of media outlets were supplied with NIDA findings. In 1971 the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) was founded. It soon became a highly organized and influential body. There are 80,000 members in many larger cities.

NORML conducts seminars to train lawyers in defending users and pushers when they are arrested. The hearings in state houses across the country are highly choreographed by these lawyers. They often call in NORML's national advisors-Lester Grinspoon, MD and Thomas Unger leider, MD-for the hearings. For many years these two psychiatrists have been major activists in the marijuana war.

Dr. Grinspoon declares that marijuana is a 'wonderful medicine'; and finds it useful for almost everyday malady. Users who have major medical problems are featured witnesses at hearings. These patients declare that they would be dead except for their marijuana. The media (especially TV) featured these experts and patients, usually ignoring the testimony of legitimate medical experts. If marijuana is legalized there are billions of dollars to be made by the unscrupulous.

Billionaire financier George Soros, who admits to having experimented with cannabis, gave a million dollars for the California and Arizona pro-pot initiatives. The FDA issues narcotic licenses to physicians. Under license guidelines, Schedule I substances ' have no accepted medical use... and have a high abuse potential. ' ; Included in this category are heroin, marijuana, and LSD. Any physicians, however, can receive marijuana for use in legitimate medical research. But marijuana users want free access to the drug.

For the more, the Psychotropic Convention Treaty of 1971 classifies marijuana as Schedule I drug. The U.S. is on of the 74 nations that have accepted the treaty. A fascinating article, ' The Return of Pot,' ; by Hannah Rue ban, appeared in the February 17, 1997 issue if The New Republic. A visit by Reuban to San Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators Club demonstrated the total absurdity of state-sanctioned use of marijuana. Reuban stated, ' it's as if the rotting of the late '60's San Francisco described by Joan Didion in Slouching Toward Bethlehem has been preserved in reverse; the characters are the same, but the center was holding. ' ; Reuban recounted the lives of the burnt out beings that frequent the clubs and made it obvious that 'medical marijuana'; is the red herring that NORML plotted.

The article should be must reading for state legislature facing the issue of legalizing 'medical marijuana. ' ; The views shared by many critics of marijuana is: Using marijuana for illness would be like prescribing moldy bread (containing penicillin) for phenomena or suggesting cigarette smoking for weight loss. Prescribing marijuana for any medical condition is totally irresponsible. Some doctors do and are either na " ive about the damage marijuana causes or perhaps are users themselves.