The recent Supreme Court decision barring the distribution of marijuana at "Cannibis Buyer's Clubs" shows why the federal laws against marijuana must be changed. I support H.R. 1344, the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, a federal bill that would let state governments make their own regulations regarding the medical use of marijuana.
There is no question that THC, the primary active ingredient in marijuana, is medically useful. This has been proven by modern controlled studies as well as centuries of experience. A synthetic THC pill called Marinol was approved by the FDA in 1986.
But, for most patients, smoked marijuana is both more effective and has fewer side effects. When smoked, the onset of effectiveness (which is frequently relief from nausea or vomiting) takes only a few minutes, and the patient can easily regulate the dosage to maintain relief. When taken orally, THC is metabolized in the liver, delaying the effect for 2 or more hours, completely eliminating its effectiveness for many people, and sometimes producing metabolites with greater psychoactivity. The few studies that have actually compared the two forms of THC delivery show smoked marijuana to be more effective. The usual medical use is short term or terminal anyway, but the best research also shows relatively little harm to the lungs even in most long term marijuana (only) users. No human death from marijuana has ever been proven.*
Since the Reagan administration, the U.S. government has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to find some way to prove smoked marijuana unsafe, contradicting the findings of decades of research and national commissions, only to keep repeating lies and distortions which were long ago proven untrue. After reviewing all the evidence, a DEA judge found in 1989 that marijuana is "one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man." But the head of the DEA overruled him, and marijuana has been kept on federal Schedule I (drugs which are too unsafe to be used under any circumstances) ever since for political reasons: to prop up a failed drug policy.
Opponents of medical marijuana argue that it is only an effort to make marijuana legal for recreational purposes. A better question is why they think it is OK for sick and dying people to suffer for political reasons. Drugs much more dangerous than marijuana can be legally prescribed. Is it because the government doesn't want people to learn the truth about the War on Marijuana, that it is useless, unnecessary, very harmful to millions, and entirely unlike the drug itself?
*These facts are referenced in Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D. and John P. Morgan, M.D., Lindesmith, 1997, available at amazon.com and lindesmith.org.
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