Marijuana as Medicine: More Harm Than Help :: pro use of medical marijuana

Marijuana as Medicine More Harm Than Help Joan Dalysmokes cannabis. She is also a former member of the San FranciscoPolice Department. When Joan was diagnosed with cancer she begana rigorous chemotherapy program, which has left her in an almostconstant state of nausea, to battle her disease. She, and many likeher, deal that the only drug they give birth tried that works to ease theirpain is ganja (Lacayo np). Claims such as this have led to anational motion pushing the legalization of medical marijuana.Marijuana should not be legalized for medicine or any other purpose.(98) Naturally, those who support the cause of legalization will havetheir arguments, which can be summarized into three main beas. Thefirst is the claim that marijuana is an instrumental treatment for thenausea associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients. The nextassertion is that marijuana is an effective controller of glaucoma.Finally, marijuana advocates claim that it is effective in stimulating theappeti te for the prevention of AIDS wasting syndrome. (71)Prop championnts of medical marijuana swear by its ability to ease thesuffering of chemotherapy patients, however there is no look into toback these staunch claims. To be sure, there is a large body ofresearch regarding cannabinoids, the chemicals found in plants of thesame type as marijuana- the cannabis family, but the overwhelmingmajority of those studies use the already USDA approved dronabinol,a celluloid pill version of marijuanas main psychoactive ingredient,THC (NIH np). The pill, claim legalization supporters, does not work torelieve nausea (Lacayo np). There is, in fact, only one study that hascompared smoked marijuana and synthetic THC pills. Of the 20patients studied, 9 had no preference, 7 preferred dronabinol, and only4 preferred smoked marijuana (NIH np). Critics of the legalizationCleland 2 movement say that using the drug before its safety andeffectiveness are determined is foolhardy ("Weed Wars" np). The re is indicate enough to support this claim. The number of patients whohave been clinically dosed with marijuana for research purposes is astaggering 56 (NIH np). That is an extremely small number to pedestalsuch large claims on. The treatment of nausea debate generallyfocuses on the synthetic pill/smoked marijuana trade off. The simpletruth is that treatments are available that much more effective than thepill in the form of ondansetron, granisetron, and others. Theireffectiveness has not been rated against that of marijuana, but thevast majority of patients respond well to these refreshed treatments, and thebenefits of marijuana for the remaining few is simply not known (NIHnp). (255) Another use of medical marijuana, says advocates, is for