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Marijuana Has Medicinal Values LSJ Didn't Report
01.07.07|Lansing State Journal

The LSJ's front page article, "Experts: Medical marijuana best as pill" (Dec. 29) was almost entirely wrong.
Let's start with the headline: In fact, experts on medical marijuana are nearly unanimous that ingestion is the wrong way to administer marijuana's active components, called cannabinoids. In an extensive 2003 review, the medical journal The Lancet Neurology concluded, "Oral administration is probably the least satisfactory route for cannabis," because oral cannabinoids are absorbed slowly and unevenly, making proper dose adjustment nearly impossible.

The Institute of Medicine made the same point regarding Marinol, the THC pill: "It is well recognized that Marinol's oral route of administration hampers its effectiveness."

But smoking is not the only alternative. Devices called vaporizers give patients using whole marijuana the advantages of inhalation - fast action and ease of dose adjustment - without the tars and other irritants in smoke. A study of one such device, published last year in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, found it "a safe and effective delivery system."

Dr. Anas Al-Janadi was quoted by the LSJ stating marijuana contains cancer-causing compounds and use can lead to dependence. Many common foods have cancer-causing compounds (artificial sweeteners or even broccoli for example). And authoritative studies have consistently shown that marijuana smokers don't have a higher risk of lung cancer or other smoking-related cancers; in some studies, marijuana smokers actually had a lower cancer risk than nonsmokers.

As for dependence, people who are sick are often dependent on medication to provide some quality of life. Is it better for them to be dependent on morphine? Many medicines for terminally ill patients are powerful, addictive and have high abuse potential.

Marijuana is far less addictive and has far lower abuse potential than many legal medications, like morphine and OxyContin.

This is not about people "getting high." Marijuana contains at least 66 unique cannabinoids, and extensive research has already documented that several play a role in control of pain, inflammation, spasticity and other symptoms. At least one, CBD, has been shown to moderate the unwanted psychoactive effects of THC. Even if oral THC worked rapidly and could be dosed precisely, it would never be as effective or safe as whole marijuana.

I used to believe that marijuana was not medicine - it just made people not mind being sick. Then I saw MS patients get out of their wheelchairs and walk. I learned about a glaucoma patient being scheduled for eye surgery. All hope of retaining vision was lost; all that could be done was to relieve the pain. A doctor took the doomed patient aside and whispered, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but if you smoke marijuana you might not need surgery."

Twenty pain-free years later, the patient still has some vision.

Yes, medical marijuana will help a comparatively small number of people: possibly you or someone you care about. Will you refuse the medicine that works, or risk going to jail for using it? If that seems wrong to you, it's time to change Michigan's laws.