Addressing Some Medical Myths About Marijuana

1) There is no scientific evidence to suggest marijuana is beneficial.

• There is in fact a great deal of evidence documented in modern scientific literature, suggesting that marijuana is beneficial in the treatment of many conditions for which it is currently used. Researchers have conducted controlled studies showing marijuana's usefulness in reducing nausea and vomiting, stimulating appetite, promoting weight gain, and decreasing intraocular pressure. There is also a considerable amount of evidence that marijuana or THC can relieve muscle spasticity caused by spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis. Both THC and cannabidiol (CBD), one of marijuana's other active ingredients, have demonstrated anticonvulsive properties and, therefore, may be useful in treating certain types of epilepsy and other seizure disorders.
  
  
• In the early 1990's scientists discovered that a class of chemicals found in marijuana, called cannabinoids, is very similar to a naturally occurring chemical in the body called anandamide. Numerous nerve receptors throughout the brain and body are triggered by the presence of anandamide. The nerves affected by these receptor firings are involved in pain control, memory and cognition, motor functioning, nausea and vomiting, and internal eye pressure. The discovery of these receptor cites and of the chemical similarities between cannabinoids and anandamide has provoked some new interest in research on the medicinal properties of marijuana. In fact, in 1997, a National Institutes of Health report highlighted the discovery of these central nervous system receptors as key to understanding the possible therapeutic applications of marijuana.

2) New drugs have been developed for glaucoma treatment, rendering any possible benefits for marijuana moot.

• While there are new, more effective drugs available for treating glaucoma, they still do not work for many patients or have serious side effects. For example, timolol (Timoptic), can cause asthma and affect heart rate and heart muscle function. This should be of serious concern for patients over 35 years of age, which includes most glaucoma patients. Lantanoprost (Xalatan) can permanently change blue eyes to brown for unknown reasons that may, overtime, be found to cause other, more serious, problems.

3) Patients can get the same benefits from Marinol in pill form.

• According to many patients and physicians, this is not the case for several reasons. The first, and most obvious, reason being that patients who are experiencing severe nausea and vomiting cannot swallow a pill nor keep it in their system long enough to relieve their nausea.
  
  
• Some patients find that Marinol takes too long to relieve their nausea. This probably results from the fact that the THC passes through the liver before reaching the receptors in the brain where psychoactive reactions and nausea suppression take place. Patients are then at risk of overdosing when they are driven to get quick relief from their violent symptoms.
  
  
• Because patients are not able to control their dosage with Marinol, many complain that it makes them feel too "high," and they experience discomfort and anxiety in such a state.

4) Marijuana impairs immune function and can therefore be dangerous to AIDS patients and others with weak immune systems.

• Since Gabriel Nahas (long time political opponent of marijuana use) first set out to prove marijuana damages the human immune response, researchers (including Nahas himself) have been unable to achieve the same results.
  
  
• At a 1981 conference sponsored by the World Health Organization and Canada's Addiction Research Foundation, reviewers if the research literature on immunity reported, "There is no conclusive evidence that cannabis predisposes man to immune dysfunction."
  
  
• In spite of official claims that THC causes immune impairment, the FDA approved oral THC (Marinol) for use as a medicine in 1986. It is interesting to note that the Physicians Desk Reference does not mention suppressed immunity among the warnings of possible adverse effects from Marinol.
  
  
• In 1992, the FDA approved Marinol as an appetite stimulant specifically for AIDS patients with severely compromised immune systems.

5) Marijuana is more damaging to the lungs than tobacco. Marijuana smokers are at high risk of developing lung cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema.

• Research conducted over the past 30 years has shown that people who smoke marijuana are much less likely than tobacco smokers to develop serious lung diseases that are generally caused by toxic material inhaled to the lungs over time. Although marijuana smoke, like tobacco smoke, contains a number of irritants and carcinogens, marijuana users typically smoke much less than tobacco smokers and inhale less smoke over time. To date, there have been no medical reports of lung cancer related solely to marijuana smoking, and there is no evidence showing higher rates of lung cancer in people who smoke marijuana.
  
  
• In a 1993 review of records from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, researchers found that, during a six year period, people who smoked marijuana daily and did not smoke tobacco, only slightly more likely than nonsmokers to seek treatment for respiratory illness. Daily marijuana smokers sought treatment for colds, flu, and bronchitis at the rate of 36 percent, while the rate among nonsmokers was 33 percent.
  
  
• Researchers at UCLA have found that, unlike heavy tobacco smokers, heavy marijuana smokers show no obstruction if the lung's small airways, indicating that people are not likely to develop emphysema from smoking only marijuana.

6) The purity and dosage of smoked marijuana is unreliable and unknowable.

• This is only true in the absence of a reliable system of cultivation and distribution of marijuana. Such a system could insure consistent levels of THC in marijuana that is grown, as well as the purity of what is then distributed to patients. Such a system is already in existence at the federal governments marijuana farm in Mississippi, from where eight patients are currently receiving medical marijuana. The same type of system can easily be maintained by state or pharmaceutical entities.

7) Marijuana is not medicine because no medicine we use today is smoked.

• It is true that no other medicine we use today is smoked. However, smoking marijuana currently the quickest and most effective way to deliver THC to the brain. When marijuana is ingested in pill form, or by way of food or drink, it passes through the liver before going into the bloodstream. The liver converts delta-9-THC into delta-11-THC which is up to five times more psychoactive, and can cause very unpleasant side effects in many patients. Marijuana that is smoked is delivered directly into the blood stream through the lungs, and then almost immediately to the brain where its medicinal properties take effect.

8) Telling people to use marijuana instead of a reliable synthetic drug is like telling them to chew bark instead of taking derivative drugs, or to grow mold on a piece of bread instead of taking penicillin.

• Not exactly. The main reason patients say they use marijuana is because they've tried the commonly prescribed synthetic drugs for their condition and found them to be ineffective, unreliable, or to have such serious side effects that they cannot take them regularly and lead normal lives.
  
  
• More and more today patients and health care professionals are becoming aware of the drawbacks, and possible dangers of putting single synthetic chemicals in their bodies when the natural plant that substance is derived from works without the same side effects.
  
  
• In the case of marijuana, there is not enough scientific evidence to suggest that THC alone, produces the desired medicinal effect in the body. An example of this is that researchers have come to believe cannabidiol (CBD) has anticonvulsive properties that may counteract the muscle-exciting effects sometimes produced by THC alone. This type of understanding is crucial to determining how marijuana can and cannot safely be used to treat certain types of epilepsy and seizure disorders.