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

Marijuana as Medicine More injure Than Help Joan Dalysmokes ganja. She is also a former member of the San FranciscoPolice Department. When Joan was diagnosed with malignant neoplastic disease she begana rigorous chemotherapy program, which has left her in an almostconstant adduce of illness, to battle her disease. She, and m any likeher, claim that the only drug they slang tried that works to ease theirpain is marihuana (Lacayo np). Claims such as this have led to anational movement pushing the legalization of medical marijuana.Marijuana should non be legalized for medicine or any other purpose.(98) Naturally, those who support the cause of legalization will havetheir arguments, which lav be summarized into three main areas. Thefirst is the claim that marijuana is an implemental 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 effec tive in excite theappetite for the prevention of AIDS wasting syndrome. (71)Proponents of medical marijuana beshrew by its ability to ease thesuffering of chemotherapy patients, however there is no enquiry toback these staunch claims. To be sure, there is a striking 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 factory farm approved dronabinol,a synthetic 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 preferable dronabinol, and only4 preferred smoked marijuana (NIH np). Critics of the legalizationCleland 2 movement say that using the drug before its safety and military capability are determined i s foolhardy ("Weed Wars" np). There isevidence abounding 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 hind endsuch large claims on. The treatment of nausea debate generallyfocuses on the synthetic pill/smoked marijuana trade off. The simple uprightness 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 resolve well to these new treatments, and thebenefits of marijuana for the remaining few is simply not known (NIHnp). (255) Another use of medical marijuana, says advocates, is for