Marijuana vs. Tabacco
...n 1995 an estimated 12.8 million Americans were current illicit drug users - meaning they had used an illicit drug in the month prior to the survey. This represents 6.1 percent of the population 12 years old and older (www.cnn.com/health/9702/weed.wars/facts/index.html, Retrieved December, 23 2002). The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that between 1994 and 1995 the rate of marijuana use among youths age 12-17 increased from 6.0 percent to 8.2 percent, continuing a trend that began during 1992-93. Since 1992, the rate of use among youth has more than doubled. Similar trends are evident among both boys and girls; among whites, blacks, and Hispanics; in all four geographic regions; and in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas (www.cnn.com/health/9702/weed.wars/facts/index.html, Retrieved December, 23 2002). Proponents of medicinal marijuana say it has been used as a therapeutic agent for centuries, and swear by its abilities to help people in pain (www.cnn.com/health/9702/weed.wars/facts/index.html, Retrieved December, 23 2002). Critics of the marijuana medical initiative say there is no proof that smoked marijuana is superior to currently available therapies. They insist that using marijuana before its effectiveness and safety are determined may do more harm than help (www.cnn.com/health/9702/weed.wars/facts/index.html, Retrieved December, 23 2002). With so many users of the drug, why hasn’t the US Government done their own studies into its use and the positive and negative effects that result from using it? The Rumors and the Facts About Marijuana Rumors Marijuana has no medical value. Smoking pot does not qualify as a medicine . . .. The marijuana as medicine issue is a carefully orchestrated campaign ...by aging hippies, lawyers, and marijuana users who are imposing a cruel hoax on sick and dying people (Peterson, Undated). Considering the known effects of marijuana on short - term memory, it seems probable that marijuana would impair . . . the patient's ability to remember to take other lifesaving . . . medicines (Schwartz and Voth, 1995). The pro-drug lobby exploits the suffering of patients with chronic illness ...as part of a strategy to legalize marijuana for general use (Drug Watch International, undated). There could be no worse message to young people.... Just when the nation is trying it’s hardest to educate teenagers not to use psychoactive drugs, now they are being told that marijuana [is a] medicine (McCaffrey, 1996). Marijuana will make you go sterile, blind, or make you drop out of school. Fact Now that you have read the rumors about marijuana here are the medical facts about it. This shows how it has helped patients with Neurological disorders, side effects associated with Cancer Chemotherapy, Glaucoma. Even patients suffering from eating disorders can benefit from medical marijuana. Marijuana has been shown to be effective in reducing nausea induced by cancer chemotherapy, stimulating appetite in AIDS patients, and reducing intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma. There is also appreciable evidence that marijuana reduces muscle spastically in-patients with neurological disorders. A synthetic THC capsule is available by prescription, but it is not as effective as smoked marijuana for many patients. Pure THC may also produce more unpleasant psychoactive side effects than smoked marijuana. Many people use marijuana as a medicine today, despite its illegality. In doing so, they risk arrest and imprisonment (www.marijuanafacts.org/mmexcall.html, Retrieved December, 23 2002). Here is drugs that can help people feel better and yet you can get sent to prison for using it. What’s wrong with this picture? Neurological and Movement Disorders Numerous pre-clinical and clinical studies of the use of cannabinoids in neurological and movement disorders have been reported as accounts of animal experiments, clinical anecdotes, surveys, and clinical studies. Evidence that marijuana relieves spastically produced by multiple sclerosis (MS) and partial spinal cord injury is largely anecdotal. Large-scale trials or controlled studies to compare marijuana or THC with currently available therapies have not been performed. There is no published evidence that cannabinoids are superior or equivalent to available therapies. Pre-clinical evidence suggests a possible role for cannabinoids in the treatment of the epilepsies, particularly generalized and partial tonic-clonic seizures. There is scant information on the use of marijuana or other cannabinoids for the actual treatment of epilepsy. Individual case studies have reported some benefit of smoked marijuana in treatment of dystonic states. Smoked marijuana or oral THC administrations for Parkinson's disease or Huntington's chorea have not been effective. Cannabinoids have shown efficacy as immune modulators in animal models of neurological conditions such as experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) and neuritis. These data suggest that cannabinoids might modify the presumed autoimmune cause of a disease such as MS. However, long-term risks of smoked marijuana need to be quantified when considering chronic therapy for neurological conditions (www.nih.gov/medimarijuana/medmar.wpd, Retrieved December, 23 2002). Here is drugs that can help people feel better and yet you can get sent to prison for using it. What’s wrong with this picture? Nausea and Vomiting Associated With Cancer Chemotherapy There is a large body of literature on the effects of cannabinoids on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Most of the clinical trials used oral dronabinol rather than smoked marijuana. The oral THC studies showed this dosage form to be superior to placebo and generally equivalent or superior to prochlorperazine, but inferior to metoclopramide. Only one study compared smoked marijuana and dronabinol in a crossover design. Of the 20 patients studied, 9 had no preference, 7 preferred dronabinol, and 4 preferred smoked marijuana, Since the approval of dronabinol in the mid 1980s for the relief of nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy, more effective antiemetics have been developed, such as ondansetron, granisetron, and dolasetron, each combined with dexamethasone. The relative efficacy of cannabinoids versus these newer antiemetics has not been evaluated. Smoked marijuana was tested in one trial in-patients who previously had no benefit from older antiemetic agents. Nearly one-quarter of patients who initially agreed to participate later declined citing bias against smoking, the harshness of smoke, and preference for dronabinol. Among the remaining 56 patients, 7...