Medical Marijuana

This is a report I did for an English class in a college course this year. I have strong feelings for this subject, for medical use only. I realize everyone has their own opinion and here is my look at the subject.

     Marijuana has been in use for over 5,000 years for medicinal purposes and for its use as a fiber for cloth and rope. Prior to 500 A.D., the plant's use as an intoxicant was almost exclusively in India. The medicinal use of marijuana began to spread to Persia and Arabia by way of travelers and explorers who were traveling westward .Historians claim that marijuana was first used as an antiseptic and pain reliever in these areas. The medicinal use of marijuana then spread across the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and across the African continent. Marijuana’s first use, here in the United States, was documented in 1860. At this time there was the official convening of the Committee on Cannabis Indica of the Ohio State Medical Society, which reported on the therapeutic applications of the marijuana plant (McMeens, 1860: 1). During the years between 1840-1890, there were more than 100articles published that recommended the use of marijuana for several different disorders. In the years between 1856 and1937, the marijuana plant lost its position as a medicinal plant and began to be used as an intoxicant. A public campaign in the press and strong public reaction brought about a federal anti-marijuana law in 1937.   Marijuana had already been criminalized within the borders of several states prior to the 1937 law. The claims of the usage of marijuana for medical purposes remained in the forefront of medical research, however. Dr. William C. Woodward, who was Legislative Counsel to the American Medical Association (AMA), who was an opponent of marijuana usage and the only doctor in the medical field to be called upon during the Taxation of Marijuana hearings, stated: “There are exceptions in treatment in which cannabis cannot apparently be successfully substituted for. The work of Pascal seems to show that Indian hemp has remarkable properties in revealing the subconscious; hence, it can be used for psychological, psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic research (Hearings, House of Representatives, 1937: 91)”.  

There are currently 14 states and the District of Columbia that allow the use of medical marijuana, however,federal law overrides state law. What this means is that even if you live in one of the 14 states where medical marijuana can be prescribed under state law, federal law enforcement, such as the DEA can still arrest you under federal drug charges. In California, stores have opened to sell the medicinal marijuana, these outlets operate under strict rules and regulations set forth by the state of California, yet, if you watch the national news, there is a story about the FBI, DEA, and ATF raiding these shops almost weekly. The governments of the United States and Canada, as well as most other countries, have a somewhat blind view of the medical usefulness of marijuana. Numerous studies have shown, over and over again, the usefulness of marijuana in the treatment of many terminal illnesses such as cancer. Cancer studies have been taking huge steps in finding treatments to slow the growth of cancer cells, and in some instances stopping the spread of the disease. However, the most successful and most common treatments, chemotherapy and radiation, cause damage to both cancerous and healthy cells, are often accompanied by severe side effects.  These treatments have been known to cause the suppression of the immune system as well as multiple organ damage. The most common side effects of chemotherapy and radiation are severe nausea and vomiting.  Severe dehydration and weight loss are common due to the vomiting and loss of appetite.   To combat these side effects many patients are prescribed medications that are a mixture of different anti-nausea medications. Generally, these mixtures do help keep the nausea at a tolerable level, yet, these prescriptions, and then for some patients they give no relief at all. The patients may also suffer from symptoms such as fevers, fatigue, aching bones, lack of sleep, anxiety, and heart beat rhythm problems among many other symptoms. This leaves the cancer patient to suffer the symptoms of the cancer, side-effects of the chemotherapy and radiation, along with the side-effects of the medications used for the side-effects of the original cancer treatments. Scientific studies, performed by medical organizations and individuals, have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that marijuana relieves nausea and low-grade pain associated with cancer treatments. In the past nine years there have been over twenty major studies that have shown that cannabinoids (the active chemical in marijuana) actually combat cancerous cells. The studies show that many different forms of cancer have been stopped from spreading by the use of cannabinoids treatment. Among the types of cancer that were studied are melanoma, breast cancer, and brain cancer. One study even offered evidence of anti-tumor activity by the use of cannabinoids treatments.   The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has noted the following symptoms or conditions that marijuana is known to treat, under Appendix IV of their November 2002 report titled "Descriptions of Allowable Conditions under State Medical Marijuana Laws":  Alzheimer's Disease, Anorexia, AIDS, Arthritis, Cachexia, Cancer, Crohn's Disease, Epilepsy, Glaucoma, HIV, Migraine, Multiple Sclerosis, Nausea, Pain, Spasticity, and Wasting Syndrome associated with AIDS (Government Office of Accountability, 2002). There are numerous groups who support the federal legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. These groups include the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American Nurses Association (ANA), the New York State Association of County Health Officials, the California Medical Association (CMA), the Rhode Island Medical Society (RIMS), the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the American Association of Addiction Medicine (AAAM), the American Public Health Association (APHA), along with numerous other medical groups. There are just as many anti-marijuana groups who stand behind the federal governments ban on medical marijuana such as the D.A.R.E. Program, which is in many public schools across the United States, and the Partnership for a Drug Free America, whose public service announcements can be seen on most of the major television networks during prime time, and the National Association of Educators, along with numerous other groups. Surveys of medical professionals have shown a large portion of physicians approve of the idea of medical marijuana being prescribed to patients who would benefit from the healing properties of marijuana. The number one concern among those who disapprove of the prescribing of marijuana is the risk of smoking the drug. Studies have shown that marijuana contains fewer carcinogens than regular tobacco. There are also many ways other than smoking marijuana to reap the benefits of the use. The patient can purchase liquid forms of THC, the active ingredient in the marijuana plant. The drug Marinol has been prescribed for many years. Marinol is a synthetic form of THC, but patients on Marinol report that it is not as potent as the real marijuana is for helping with nausea, chronic pain, or loss of appetite. There are now vaporizers on the market that vaporized the marijuana and the patient can ingest the THC without ever lighting up. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the government organization that tests and approves or disapproves of all medicines that are new on the market. The FDA says that there is no real evidence to prove that marijuana has any useful properties to warrant the decriminalization of marijuana. This puts the marijuana plant in the same narcotic classification as heroin in the eyes of the federal law. The FDA also issues any permits to any persons wishing to grow marijuana for research, yet, they keep the paperwork tied up for years at a time, thus, how is there ever to be any research on the benefits of the marijuana if the federal government will not issue permits for scientists to grow the product they need for their research. It comes down to a game of politics. The government's job is to keep marijuana off the street and this is one way of controlling it by preventing anyone from legally growing it.

      The federal government was not always this adverse to medical marijuana. In 1978, the FDA created the "Investigational New Drug Compassionate Access Program" or INDCAP, for short.  This program allowed people with a medical necessity to use marijuana, but in 1992 when the program was inundated with requests from the patients of the AIDS epidemic, the program was shut down. However, there are still seven people who receive a silver tin each month containing 100 rolled marijuana cigarettes until the day they die. These were the first seven people who were issued the permits in 1978. What we are talking about is not recreational use of marijuana but the use of the plant as a medication. The patients that would be using the medical marijuana typically would not be using it to get intoxicated, the sick person wants to be a healthy person and marijuana offers a promise of helping people. Each year 48 million people suffer from chronic pain lasting six months or more. Marijuana has been proven, by the National Institute of Health (NIH), at John Hopkins University, to provide relief of chronic pain. The FDA argues that there are more than enough pain medications on the market that would help these 48 million sufferers. While on the one side the government says to write a prescription for pain medication if the patient needs it and on the other hand the DEA is arresting doctors at pain clinics for prescribing unnecessary pain medications. It has become a catch 22 situation. There is also the problem with addiction to pain medications. This is a very real problem for doctors. Would it not be better to prescribe marijuana that does not cause any physical dependence than to get a patient addicted to a man made product? The FDA doesn't think so. The National Institute of Health estimates that the treatment of chronic pain costs patients over $100 billion dollars a year in lost wages, medical costs, and other expenses, because a patient with chronic pain for six months or longer cannot receive an adequate amount of care since the doctors are allowed to only prescribe a certain amount of narcotic pain medication to an individual patient. Another survey shows that 50 million workdays are lost each year due to pain. This has doctors afraid of prison. Estimates are that 5,600 doctors have been investigated and 450 prosecuted in the past six years.    

I lost my mother on August 31 this year. She died from cancer after only 28 days from being diagnosed. The doctor put her on a chemotherapy pill, anti-nausea medications, and pain medications. The dosage for the chemotherapy was extremely high and she became nauseated with the first dose. She had no appetite, when she ate she would vomit violently, and began getting very weak within the first seven days of the treatment. As she lost her appetite, she began her losing strength. We carried her to the oncologist, three weeks later, for her first round liquid chemotherapy, the doctor told my father and I that my mother was too weak to take the treatments. We carried her back home and she was in excruciating pain and unable to walk by herself. The hospice nurses began coming once a day and had us giving her enough pain medication to keep her comfortable. I could see in her eyes that she was not agreeing with what was happening to her. She died on the morning of the 28th day. The doctor had told us that my mother had become too weak for the treatments due to the fact that she had been unable to eat and unable to function from the pain medication. Had my mother been able to get the medical marijuana it would have most likely helped her control the pain, kept her from being so nauseated, and helped with her appetite? With an appetite she could have kept up enough strength to receive the liquid chemotherapy and radiation treatments, perhaps extending her time here with us. Marijuana, according to a study in 1978, stopped the growth of cancer in lab rats. Could marijuana have stopped the growth of my mother's cancer? This will never be known. Could it have made her suffering a little easier for her? It would have made it easier; she would have been able to eat and not been so lethargic from the high doses morphine. She would have been able to rest easier and been more relaxed.

     As you have seen, marijuana can be a useful drug in the fight against cancer. Studies have also shown that marijuana helps calm the spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). The cannabinoids affect the brain and central nervous system to slow down the spasticity. The disease MS also comes with a lot of pain associated with the symptoms. Here the doctors once again are prescribing a narcotic just to deal with the pain issue. They are also regulated on maximum dosages for the patient, who, after six months or so, will be in need of more medications than the doctor can legally prescribe to the patient. Medical marijuana studies show that the use of narcotic pain medication could be greatly reduced by the use of the “natural” cannabinoids in the plant. By using marijuana the risk of a chemical dependence is greatly reduced.

     The use of marijuana to treat disease and ailments has been around for over 5000 years. The marijuana plant is a natural drug and not a mixture of chemicals that can cause a physical dependence. The marijuana plant has many uses, both medically and industrially. The leaves and flowers from the plant can be used in treating illness while the stalk of the plant can be used to produce the strongest rope known to man and used to make a very durable fabric for clothing. Why would the federal government not allow the use of such a versatile plant? Is there money being made in Washington from the large drug manufacturers that produce the pain and nausea medications? Could it be someone in Washington is lining his pockets with funds derived from the arrest and prosecution of offenders? There are thousands of people each year arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana that they have had to purchase from the streets to help them through medical suffering. It is time that we, as Americans, let our government know how we feel. Americans have the right to treat their illnesses any way they choose. Is it not better to have John Doe sitting at home smoking a little marijuana to deal with his pain and nausea from cancer than to have the same person taking large amounts of narcotics? If John Doe beats the cancer, and becomes addicted to the narcotics, he will then need to go a drug rehab for three to six months, costing the insurance companies more money, which then gets passed down the line to the consumer. Making marijuana legal for medical use only makes good sense financially, physically, and psychologically.

References:

Seamon, M.J. (2007). Clinical review. Medical marijuana and the developing role of the pharmacist. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=111&sid=c568da5b-026f-4ffc-8097-a669d8f50bf4%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=rzh&AN=2009589135#db=rzh&AN=2009589135

 (2003). Adult pain. Retrieved from http://adultpain.nursing.uiowa.edu

 (2010). The Benefits of Medical Marijuana in Cancer Patients. Retrieved from             http://www.talkinmince.com

 (2009). Western Blogs. Retrieved from http://westernstandard.blogs.comhttp://medicalmarijuana.procon.org

(2006). Sync. Retrieved from http://sync.rubixcafe.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/marijuana_arrests_chart500_short.gif

Geiringer, PhD, D. H. (1996). Review of Human Studies on Medical Use of Marijuana. NORML. Retrieved from http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4393

 (2010). Science and Technology. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/EBchecked/topic/172024/drug-use/40525/History-of-cannabis-use-and-regulation

(2010). 420K. Retrieved from http://www.420k.com/

“Congress should definitely consider decriminalizing possession of marijuana….We should concentrate on prosecuting the rapists and burglars who are a menace to society.” – U.S. Representative Dan Quayle, March 1977