Medical Use of Marijuana: Pros and Cons

The Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act, introduced in the Alabama House late last month, will protect from arrest and prosecution physicians who recommend marijuana and patients who use marijuana as medicine.  Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have already passed similar laws.*

In 1979, the Legislature passed the Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act and established rules for medical marijuana.  The code states that medical marijuana can be used in the treatment of cancer and glaucoma.  Due to drug war politics, that law was never implemented.  Is it time to update it to include the most recent research, which shows that the marijuana plant is beneficial not only to people suffering from cancer and glaucoma but a whole host of other debilitating illnesses as well?*

On the other side of the coin…….the National Eye Institute has studied the relationship between glaucoma and smoking marijuana with the following result:  None of these studies demonstrated that marijuana or any of its components could lower IOP (intraocular pressure) as effectively as drugs already on the market.  In addition, some potentially serious side effects were noted, including an increased heart rate and a decrease in blood pressure in studies using smoked marijuana.**

The FDA released a statement in April 2006 that due to a lack of human or animal data showing safety of smoked marijuana and due to the availability of FDA-approved medications for many of the ailments listed as uses of smoked marijuana; they do not support the use of marijuana as a medicine.  Furthermore, the National Institute on Drug Abuse stated that “little is known about the many chemicals besides THC that are in marijuana, or their possible impact on patients with medical conditions.”**

What are your opinions?  Are you for or against the medical use of marijuana?

 *thoughts and comments in the Birmingham News 4/10/11 in favor of medical use of marijuana