On medical marijuana

When he took office as the country s Drug Czar in 1996, Barry McCaffrey insisted there was not a shred of scientific evidence that smoking marijuana was useful or necessary. Nevertheless, McCaffrey commissioned yet another report to evaluate the scientific validity of marijuana for patients. The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine undertook an 18-month study of all available scientific evidence on medical marijuana. The 1999 report s authors found that the active components in marijuana appear to be helpful in treating pain, nausea, AIDS-related weight loss,... 

The increased heart rate associated with marijuana use can cause other problems. A 1999 report on medical marijuana from the U.S. government s Institute of Medicine (lOM) noted that even though the elevated heart rate experienced by marijuana users is not considered excessive for people in good health, among those with heart disease, such a rise in heart rate could be fatal. 

Whether they support medical marijuana use or not, many doctors resent the intrusion of nonmedically trained politicians and law enforcement officials into the debate on medical marijuana. One of the most outspoken critics of the government s medical marijuana policy is Lester Grinspoon, M.D., an associate clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who has written two books on the medicinal use of marijuana and served as an official at NORML. After his son died ftom leukemia (a cancer of the blood system). Dr. Grin-spoon became an avid medical marijuana activist, often recommending marijuana to his cancer and AIDS patients. Speaking about his firsthand experience with the medical use of marijuana, Grinspoon said ... 

Schaffer Library (www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/medical/ medical.htm). This website contains a wealth of information on medical marijuana. 

ONDCP has also opposed medical marijuana initiatives. In a March 24, 2003, Press Release regarding proposed legislation in Maryland, Drug Czar Walters said, Research has not demonstrated that smoked marijuana is safe and effective medicine. Legalizing smoked marijuana under the guise of medicine is scientifically irresponsible and contradictory to our high standards for approval of medications. In a June 6, 2005, Press Release issued after a Supreme Court decision on medical marijuana, Walters stated ... 

The cooperative had also argued that even if the necessity defense is not allowed, the Controlled Substances Act exceeds the power of Congress under the constitution s Commerce Clause, and that enforcing this law against medical marijuana patients would deprive them of the right to due process and infringe on liberties guaranteed by the Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments. However, because these constitutional issues were not raised earlier in the appeals process, the Court declined to consider them. 

This decision probably seems to have had more of a political impact than a legal one. It has energized medical marijuana advocates as well as supporters of jury nullification—the idea that jurors should be able to decide whether a law is being fairly applied in a particular situation. Barring the acknowledgement of a medical necessity defense, the well-established principle that federal laws take precedence when in conflict with state laws means that the medical marijuana dispute would have to be ultimately resolved on the national level. 

In a defeat for medical marijuana advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the federal Controlled Substances Act precludes a medical necessity defense on the part of the Oakland, California, Cannabis Buyers Club. February Officials at the popular drug education program DARE admit that some of the techniques they have been using may be ineffective. They begin a process of reviewing research and revising the curriculum. 

Drug War Facts Medical Marijuana. Common Sense for Drug Policy. Available online. URL http //www.drugwarfacts.org/medicalm.htm. Updated on September 12, 2003. Provides facts and statistics (with sources) on the implementation of medical marijuana programs in the United States and testimony by experts as to marijuana s effectiveness as a medicine. 

Medical Marijuana Program. State of Oregon, Department of Health and Human Services. Available online. URL http //www.ohd.hr.state.or. us/mm/index.c m Downloaded on January 8, 2004. Provides basic facts and answers to frequently asked questions about Oregon s medical marijuana program. 

Albert, Tanya. Nevada approves bill on medical use of marijuana. American Medical News 44 (2001) 13. 

Roger Roffman, author o/Marijuana as Medicine, conducted the first research study on G1 marijuana use in Vietnam and has been the administrator of the Washington State Research Program on the Medical Uses of Marijuana. 

In our 1987 review, we summarized the research and clinical experience in this area [1], Surprisingly, in spite of the enormous public interest in medical marijuana and countless articles in the daily press and magazines focused predominantly on this aspect of marijuana use, little progress has been reported on the antiemetic activity of cannabinoids in the last decade. Plasse et al. have reviewed the clinical experience gained over 7 years with dronabinol (d9-THC) in antiemetic treatment [117]. With doses of 7 mg/m2 or below, complete response was noted in 36% of the patients, 32% showed partial response and 32% showed no response. However, 65% displayed drowsiness and dizziness and 12% had dysphoric effects. Combination treatment of dronabinol with prochlorperazine (a dopamine receptor blocker widely used as an antipsychotic drug with antiemetic effects) was more effective than each drug alone [118]. 

Whenever medical marijuana is discussed, glaucoma is mentioned alongside vomiting as the principal disease condition for which the drug is helpful. However, in spite of its prominence in the marijuana controversy, very little research has been done on the effects of cannabis on glaucoma in the last decade. 

Bruce Mirkcn, Director of Communications for the Marijuana Polic) Project, in Response to the April 20, 2006, FDA Press Release on > Medical Uses of Marijuana... 

Jb Coverage of marijuana s mechanisms of action and the latest information on medical uses of marijuana... 

Among those criticized by McCaffrey was neurobiologist Janet Joy, the scientist heading the lOM committee. She publicly expressed embarrassment at McCaffrey s public attack on the report and defended it, saying the lOM report reflected the most rigorous academic standards. She told reporters that the committee s scientists and physicians, among the best in the country, had thoroughly analyzed more than two thousand scientific studies on marijuana over a two-year period. She also stated that the lOM report was based solely on medical evidence that measured the ways people are affected by cannabis, evidence that has been duplicated and confirmed numerous times by other researchers. 

As the research continues, the doctors who would be affected by legalizing medical marijuana remain almost evenly divided on the topic. In April 2001, in response to a question about whether doctors should be able to prescribe marijuana legally as a medical treatment, 36 percent of the physicians surveyed thought they should, 38 percent thought they should not, and 26 percent were neutral. 

Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative (www.rxcbc.org). Here is the story on the first legal medical marijuana source that was closed by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The lOM report also contains a detailed discussion of the risk/benefit ratio of smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes. Since Drug Czar Walters has used this section of the lOM report to argue against medical marijuana, it is important to read the exact language on this issue in the report ... 

In spite of the federal government s position on medical uses of marijuana, 11 states have adopted medical marijuana laws. Only three of these states have... 

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