The issue of medical marijuana is something that often comes across the desks of elected representatives. At the moment, six states have legislation pending to legalize medical marijuana, while another 16 have already legalized it (16 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC). Despite individual states acceptance of medical marijuana, it still remains a national controversy, with many thinking of marijuana, as a potent recreational drug, not a legitimate medical treatment (Public Policy on Medical Marijuana).
The FDA reinforces and promotes that viewpoint by classifying marijuana as a schedule 1 substance in the Controlled Substances Act, a list that contains mind-altering drugs like heroin and ecstasy. For a substance to make it onto this list the FDA must classify it as having high potential for abuse, have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the USA and have a lack of accepted safety use under medical supervision (Controlled Substance Schedules).
The FDA plays a vital role in making sure a variety of products are safe and fit for people to use. When we see a product as FDA approved it reassures us, and when it is blacklisted by the agency it gives us pause. However I, as well as many scientists, physicians and-above all-patients, believe that the FDA’s conclusion that medical marijuana has no “accepted medical use” is very wrong and needs to be reconsidered for the sake of providing relief to suffering patients (First Time Here).
Many patients who could benefit from medical marijuana are afflicted with neuropathic, or nerve, pain, which can cause people to feel everything from “burning or electric shock like-pain” to “cutting, piercing or stabbing pain. ” It also can cause a heightened sense of pain so that a “a pinprick against the skin may feel like a knife stab.” This state of pain can be continuous, and is often a problem that can only be managed, not cured (Symptoms.) People undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, living with multiple sclerosis or HIV/AIDS often experience neuropathic pain (Pain Management: Neuropathic Pain)
There is a huge array of drugs on the market with the purpose of subsiding pain associated with these conditions. However, every patient’s pain is unique and what works for some, has no effect on others. And sometimes what works to relieve one pain induces another, or creates undesirable side effects, like nausea or dizziness (Medications).
Although the FDA believes that marijuana has no medical usefulness, controlled studies have shown that marijuana is has the ability to fight neuropathic pain (McQuay 1494-1495), often without the side effects associated with pharmaceuticals (San Francisco Patient and Resource Center).
The conclusions being drawn by research are hardly fringe or confined only to academia. There are over 40 medical and disease associations that believe in the pain-treating powers of marijuana and supporting its legalization for medicinal use (DrugScience.org) Supporters include, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Public Health Association and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Joycelyn Elders, MD, the U.S. surgeon general during a portion of the Clinton adminstration, is among the supporters of medical marijuana.
“The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS -- or by the harsh drugs sometimes used to treat them,” she wrote in a newspaper article in 2004 ( Elders).
While the wide medical support for medical marijuana adds to the legitimacy of medical marijuana, the heartfelt testimonies of patients who finally found relief after using medical marijuana adds a human face to the issue and truly shows that the controversy isn’t about getting a taboo substance approve, but about helping people who are in pain.
“ Each day, I live with the feelings of being stabbed in the back, punched in the stomach and kneed in the groin… I have never been able to tolerate pain medications, and my condition requires use of the strongest opiates. Marijuana helps to alleviate my pain and helps alleviate the nausea caused by the opiates I must take,” wrote a patient with a terminal blood cancer on the testimonial page of the Marijuana Policy Project website (Calderon).
Testimonials like this patient’s can be found all over the Internet, on patient support group forums, and websites supporting patient rights and medical marijuana legalization. The people writing them often differ in age, occupation and individual condition, but they are brought together by the unified belief that medical marijuana has improved the quality of their life when other medications wouldn’t work.
While the FDA’s claim that there is “no current accepted medical use for marijuana” is countered by the scores of physicians and patients who support it based on scientific research and personal experience, the question of marijuana’s safety and potential for addictiveness is an important one, especially for lawmakers looking out for the best interests of their constituents. After all, thalidomide, a drug prescribed by doctors in the 1950s and 1960s to treat morning sickness in pregnant women, seemed effective and safe until children with severe birth defects were born to women who used it (Mayo Clinic Staff). This tragedy taught exhibits that even if a drug seems effective on the surface its safety must be evaluated.
Currently, the FDA says that marijuana lacks an “accepted safety use under medical supervision.” A probable reason for this is the classification of marijuana as an illegal substance in the United States. A medically approved safety protocol hasn’t been able to be developed because legal access to marijuana, minus some government approved research facilities (Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies), does not exist.
The lack of a strict protocol shouldn’t prevent the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, however, because literature shows that it’s nearly impossible to consume enough marijuana for it to be dangerous. For example, according to the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, the lethal dose of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, is about 1/3 of a person’s body weight consumed all at once. For an average sized man, that’s about 1,500 pounds of marijuana (Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse). In great contrast, the daily dosage of marijuana used to provide relief in medicinal settings is often under 10 grams (Dosage/Potency).
Nonetheless, while lethality may not be a realistic concern, side effects do occur with medical marijuana use. Low doses (5 mg) may cause euphoria, restlessness, mild confusion and enhanced appetite. At high doses (9 mg) hallucinogenic side effects are possible, with distortion of body image, visual illusions and distortions and vivid hallucinations being reported. Moderate doses, or amounts between the high and low range, may cause impaired immediate memory, feelings of enhanced insight and increased suggestibility (Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, Acute Effects of Marijuana). The prescense and severity of these side-effects vary from patient-to-patient, just as with approved medications, and management of them is a conversation that I believe is best left between the physcian and patient. So although no standard protocol exists, a personal protocol that establishes the most effective dose for the individual patient could be established without worry of accidental overdose if medical marijuana was legalized.
Another point that gives lawmakers and the public pause about the legalization of medical marijuana is the potential addictiveness of the substance, a characteristic the FDA notes on its schedule 1 classification (Controlled Substance Schedules). Research has shown that the FDA is correct when they say that marijuana is addictive. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse about 9 percent of people who use marijuana will become addicted to it, with the number rising to 25 to 50 percent for daily users (Marijuana Abuse 1-12).
Although marijuana may be addictive, I don’t believe that is grounds enough to prevent it from being used medicinally because a host of legal prescription drugs on the market are highly addictive, with many being much more addictive than marijuana. For example, opioids are a class of medicine that are often used to in treatment of cancer, HIV/AIDS and other conditions, but they have the potential to be highly addictive are one of the most commonly abused drugs in the United States (National Institute of Drug Abuse) However, when used under the supervision of a doctor to treat a condition, the risk of addiction can be countered with the physician’s knowledge of dosage and signs of substance abuse (National Institute of Drug Abuse, InfoFacts)This exhibits that although a substance may have the potential to be addictive, when used for the purpose of pain treatment and prescribed by the doctor, it can provide relief without creating and addict in the process.
All in all, when compared side-by-side, medical marijuana has a lot in common with legal prescription drugs. They are both potentially addictive and have certain side effects associated with them, but more importantly they can both provide relief to people suffering. So when the next time a piece of legislation comes across your desk concerning medical marijuana I urge you to remember the points raised in this appeal, and that by voting “yes” on the legalization of marijuana you aren’t being soft on drugs, or endorsing a new-age herb, but adding another powerful tool in a qualified physician’s tool belt, and potentially providing relief to a person in pain.
Works Cited
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