The Use of Medical Marijuana

2009.04.27

Perhaps you have been in the situation where you or a loved one was in chronic pain caused by a disease. The strongest medication that your doctor prescribed and you picked up at the local pharmacy did little or nothing to alleviate that pain. Perhaps the medication were cost prohibitive and in addition, there were many side undesirable side effects or was addictive. What if there was a medication available at little to no cost that has been shown not to be addictive and was more effective at controlling the pain. Would you want that medication to be available?

Cannabis has been shown as effective in controlling the pain from Cancer, HIV/AIDS as well as other severe pain, is useful in treating Alzheimer patients who become agitated, seizures, severe nausea and persistent muscle cramps. Even the American Cancer Society, with all their anti-smoking hype has endorsed the medical use of cannibals. That is right, cannabis – marijuana. The stuff that people smoke has been found useful in providing relief for these and many other diseases.

The problem for many people is that we are talking about pot, the stuff in “Reefer Madness.” The other problem is that in 37states, the medical use of marijuana is still illegal, even if your doctor were to prescribe it. The medical use of marijuana has become legal in thirteen states since 1996. These states are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. In several of these states, the medical use of marijuana is highly regulated. In others, the regulation is much more lax. The Drug Enforcement Agency claims that large scale drug cartels hide behind Proposition 215 in California, where regulation and standards are left to the individual counties.

There are also arguments against the medical use of marijuana. Some worry about long term effects. Others claim that marijuana is an entry drug to other illegal drugs. There is the worry that since it is smoked, it is difficult to control the exact dosage of the drug inhaled.

Certainly there may be risks to the medical use of marijuana, just as there are with the use of any drug. The decision with which 37 more states may choose to contend is if these risks outweigh the benefits. In 1997 Hillary Clinton stated that she felt that there should at least be more research to see whether or not the benefits outweighed the risks.

For those who live in states where medical marijuana is legal, persons who suffer with many of the above mentioned chronic diseases may choose to discuss with their physicians the benefits verses the risks of medical marijuana.

Ultimately the choice is up to the individual. Even in states where medical marijuana is illegal there are those who have been law abiding citizens for the majority of their lives who will choose to break this law because nothing else seems to provide the relief that is available by smoking this herbal remedy.