Marijuana
MarijuanaMarijuana as Medicine: More Harm Than Help Wade Cleland AP
English Language and Composition Mrs. Czupryk 18 April 1998
Cleland 1 Marijuana as Medicine: More Harm Than Help Joan Daly
smokes marijuana. She is also a former member of the San Francisco
Police Department. When Joan was diagnosed with cancer she began
a rigorous chemotherapy program, which has left her in an almost
constant state of nausea, to battle her disease. She, and many like
her, claim that the only drug they have tried that works to ease their
pain is marijuana (Lacayo np). Claims such as this have led to a
national movement 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 have
their arguments, which can be summarized into three main areas. The
first is the claim that marijuana is an instrumental treatment for the
nausea associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients. The next
assertion is that marijuana is an effective controller of glaucoma.
Finally, marijuana advocates claim that it is effective in stimulating the
appetite for the prevention of AIDS wasting syndrome. (71)
Proponents of medical marijuana swear by its ability to ease the
suffering of chemotherapy patients, however there is no research to
back these staunch claims. To be sure, there is a large body of
research regarding cannabinoids, the chemicals found in plants of the
same type as marijuana- the cannabis family, but the overwhelming
majority of those studies use the already USDA approved dronabinol,
a synthetic pill version of marijuana's main psychoactive ingredient,
THC (NIH np). The pill, claim legalization supporters, does not work to
relieve nausea (Lacayo np). There is, in fact, only one study that has
compared smoked marijuana and synthetic THC pills. Of the 20
patients studied, 9 had no preference, 7 preferred dronabinol, and only
4 preferred smoked marijuana (NIH np). Critics of the legalization
Cleland 2 movement say that using the drug before its safety and
effectiveness are determined is foolhardy ("Weed Wars" np). There is
evidence enough to support this claim. The number of patients who
have been clinically dosed with marijuana for research purposes is a
staggering 56 (NIH np). That is an extremely small number to base
such large claims on. The treatment of nausea debate generally
focuses on the synthetic pill/smoked marijuana trade off. The simple
truth is that treatments are available that much more effective than the
pill in the form of ondansetron, granisetron, and others. Their
effectiveness has not been rated against that of marijuana, but the
vast majority of patients respond well to these new treatments, and the
benefits of marijuana for the remaining few is simply not known (NIH
np). (255) Another use of medical marijuana, says advocates, is for
the treatment of glaucoma, but this has not been in any way proven
more effective than existing treatments. Glaucoma is a gradual
reduction of optical capability caused by increasing intra ocular
pressure (IOP), or the pressure of the eye's fluids against its...
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