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Doctors demolish myths on medical marijuana
New analysis shows feds are wrong on pot
2/23/08|Lansing State Journal|| by Dianne Byrum

As Michigan voters prepare to consider a November ballot initiative to protect seriously ill patients who use medical marijuana from arrest and jail, one of America's leading medical societies has come down forcefully on the side of compassion and common sense, in supporting medical marijuana for seriously ill people. These doctors have demolished the myths being floated by opponents of medical marijuana.

The American College of Physicians is the nation's largest medical specialty organization and the second largest physician group in the United States.

Its membership numbers 124,000 doctors - specialists in internal medicine, cardiology, neurology, pulmonary disease, oncology and infectious diseases, among others. ACP publishes Annals of Internal Medicine, the most widely cited medical specialty journal in the world.

In a just-released position paper, backed up with 10 pages of scientific documentation and references, ACP says the federal government is wrong to classify marijuana as unsuitable for medical use and urges an immediate review of its status, "given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana's safety and efficacy in some clinical situations." ACP specifically calls for "protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws," such as the one Michigan will soon vote on.

ACP directly takes on the myths already being raised by opponents:

ACP cites studies showing that marijuana's active components "may provide symptom relief not found in any other medication" for patients suffering from AIDS or undergoing cancer chemotherapy and experiencing severe pain, nausea and appetite loss.

ACP explains that a technology called vaporization removes the hazards of smoking while maintaining the benefits that patients prefer.

ACP notes that the THC pill called Marinol, touted as a substitute for marijuana, has "serious limitations" due to "slow absorption" and side effects that are "more severe."

"Marijuana has not been shown to be the cause of even the most serious predictor of serious drug abuse," the doctors write, adding pointedly, "Opiates are highly addictive yet medically effective ... There is no evidence to suggest that medical use of opiates has increased perception that their illicit use is safe or acceptable."

The group representing 124,000 physicians has declared that it's time for public policy to recognize "marijuana's proven efficacy at treating certain symptoms and its relatively low toxicity."

Michigan voters should take the doctors' advice this November and vote to protect seriously ill patients from arrest and jail.

 

Buzzby

In the debate over medical marijuana, this is a vital point we need to pound in again and again. We welcome other effective drugs that present much greater dangers of abuse and which have much more severe side effects. Why is marijuana singled out for "if we allow people to use it medicinally, it will encourage kids to use it recreationally".

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elgrande

Why is Marijuana singled out? Indeed, that is the sticking point.

We know that racism played a major role in marijuana prohibition, but Richard Nixon deserves a prize for rejecting his own panel's finding and recommendations and instigating the war on some drugs, especially marijuana. The social upheavals in the 60's and fear of a counter culture and hippies, lives on in the minds and policies of people in power. And, of course, the press is in lock step with the paranoia. Fear sells more papers than enlightenment.