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Medical Marijuana: Myths and Facts
by Phillip T. Alden for the San
Francisco Spectrum
MYTH: Medical marijuana users just
have a legal excuse to party.
FACT: Most medical marijuana users are in great
pain. For People with AIDS who suffer from Peripheral Neuropathy
(PN) medical cannabis has been a godsend. In the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) Report on Medical Marijuana they state that their
only scientific finding (excluding anecdotal reports) was that marijuana
was most effective for nerve pain. Around every nerve ending are
a number of receptors of one kind or another. At every nerve ending
in the human body there are fewer opiate receptors than cannabinoid
receptors, which means that marijuana is far more effective for
stopping nerve pain than opiate drugs, (which do not work for nerve
pain very well at all).
MYTH: The pharmaceutical version of marijuana,
known as Marinol ™ is just as effective as the organic plant
form.
FACT: Marinol ™ is an incredibly poor substitute
for the organic form. This refined pill form contains only one of
the over thirty cannabinoids found in the plant form and the psychoactive
side-effects of Marinol ™ are much harder to control. In addition,
the drug form may not take effect for up to three or four hours.
Ask an AIDS patient who needs to eat and take toxic drugs at specific
times how that works for them. There have also been many reports
of anxiety attacks among people taking the pill form.
MYTH: With all the anti-inflammatory drugs, the
stomach drugs and the new, powerful opiate pain killers patients
do not need organic marijuana.
FACT: As mentioned above, opiates will not work
for nerve pain. Only marijuana works for brutal nerve pain. And
since the overdose ratio of marijuana is so high that nobody could
ever reach it, marijuana is much safer than opiate-based drugs.
Medical marijuana is safer than aspirin. There are hundreds of patients
who suffer from chronic arthritis and/or joint pain who have found
relief through medical marijuana. Many patients with arthritis have
been able to quit their opiate-based painkillers completely. Stomach
medications can be used as complimentary drugs in addition to marijuana
but there is no better stomach remedy on the planet than organic
marijuana.
MYTH: Marijuana needs to be held in the lungs
as long as possible to work.
FACT: The lungs are the most effective means
of absorption. When any gas or smoke is taken into the lungs it
is absorbed in under five seconds. Holding marijuana (or any other
type of smoke) in the lungs causes unnecessary buildup of tar.
MYTH: Medical marijuana opens the door for recreational
use.
FACT: There is absolutely no hard data to validate
this assertion.
MYTH: Medical marijuana hampers the ‘War
on Drugs’.
FACT: Medical marijuana does not hamper anti-drug
efforts but it does show the absurdity of the ‘War on Drugs’.
America’s anti-drug policies have imprisoned over two million
Americans and caused untold suffering throughout the world. Prohibition
has never worked and it never will. The ‘War on Drugs’
is more detrimental than drug use itself. And while education can
help keep young people from using recreational drugs propaganda
while only make those same youngsters leery of all anti-drug messages.
We have gone from a recreational drug society to a pharmaceutical
drug society and there are far more people using and abusing prescription
drugs than street drugs.
MYTH: Marijuana smoke does more harm than good.
FACT: There are no studies that back this up.
A recent study at U.C.S.F. showed that AIDS patients who smoke marijuana
do not have a greater CD4 cell decline than those who don’t.
Both Canada and Great Britain are working on an inhaler that utilizes
all the cannabinoids without smoke, much like an asthma inhaler,
but the Office of Drug Policy in Washington has been working to
keep this form of medication from the American people.
There are no studies yet that prove any harm to non-smokers from
second-hand marijuana smoke. The main obstacle to medical marijuana
research in the U.S. Federal Government, which has tried in every
way to keep medical marijuana from the people who need it most.
While possession of marijuana is a ticket-able offense in the State
of California, possession of even the smallest amount of marijuana
can land a user in prison in places like Texas or Missouri.
For more information on Medical Marijuana, the ‘War on Drugs’
and pharmaceutical drug use in the United States see: “Why
Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It” by
Orange County Superior Court Judge James P. Gray and “Bitter
Pills: Inside the Hazardous World of Legal Drugs” by
Stephen Fried. You can also find more information on the web from
the Marijuana Policy Project at: http://www.mpp.org
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Phillip
Alden is a freelance AIDS journalist in the San Francisco
Bay Area. Mr. Alden is also an AIDS activist and local AIDS
services volunteer. |
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