Frequently Asked Questions

Marijuana

Question:

What are your opinions regarding the use of marijuana as medicine? Since it has been allowed in a few places on a test basis, doesn't that make it okay for me to smoke it?

Answer:

"Known in Central China as early as 3000 BC, Marijuana was used as a folk medicine" (Funk 445). Since its earliest recorded use in China 5000 years ago, its common use in witchcraft and sorcery, along with its widespread use among students in the 1960s and '70s as a pleasure inducing stimulus, we compile that Marijuana is a drug. According to Webster's dictionary, a "drug" is "a substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease"(350). With the continuation of the Hemp movement today, many are focusing on the medical uses of Marijuana. If marijuana is believed to have healing powers it must be a DRUG.

In recent years, there have been many medical studies to learn about the healing powers of marijuana. According to these studies, the cannabinoids received through smoking marijuana can be used as a drug to stimulate the appetites of AIDS patients, reduce nausea for cancer patients, relieve chronic pain, help glaucoma patients control pain and restore muscle control for those with multiple sclerosis. In the past, the government has allowed thirteen Americans with these ailments receive government grown marijuana by prescription. In June of 1992, this program was eliminated and no one was able to apply to the government and receive marijuana for medical reasons any longer.

Since then some drastic changes have occurred within the legislature of certain states. Although marijuana is still illegal across the country, there are a few places that are beginning to accept its limited prescription for certain medical uses. With this change in political environment many have documented this herbal transition. A 1997 article written by Daniel Q. Haney for The Associated Press is probably one of the best and most objective pieces that I have read on this subject. The following is the article in its entirety so that you will see the context of each statement. Please pay special attention to the last quote by retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Policy:

BOSTON (Jan. 29,1997) - The New England Journal of Medicine has come out in favor of allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes, calling the threat of government sanctions ''misguided, heavy-handed and inhumane.''

''Whatever their reasons, federal officials are out of step with the public,'' Dr. Jerome P. Kassirer, the journal's editor, wrote in an editorial in Thursday's issue. The journal is one of the world's most prestigious medical publications.

After voters in Arizona and California passed propositions letting doctors prescribe pot for medical uses, Attorney General Janet Reno said doctors who do this could lose their prescription-writing privileges, be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid and even be prosecuted.

Some doctors believe marijuana can relieve internal eye pressure in glaucoma, control nausea in cancer patients on chemotherapy and combat the severe weight loss seen in AIDS patients. However, administration officials note that such uses of marijuana have not been proved.

Kassirer said marijuana is safer than some drugs used legally for some of the same conditions, such as morphine.

Furthermore, he said experiments to prove marijuana's value would be hard to do because of the difficulty of measuring nausea and other such sensations.

''What really counts for a therapy with this kind of safety margin is whether a seriously ill patient feels relief as a result of the intervention, not whether a controlled trial 'proves' its efficacy,'' Kassirer wrote.

In a written response, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Policy, said marijuana might someday be approved for specific medical purposes.

''But up to this point, smoke is not a medicine,'' McCaffrey said. ''Other treatments have been deemed safer and more effective than a psychoactive burning carcinogen self-induced through one's throat.''

The D.E.A. ruled that marijuana is still an illicit drug and not a medicine. Even if it was approved for specific medical purposes, it would then fall under the category of other legal medicines such as morphine, and would only be available by a doctors prescription for specific ailments. Although this would be considered a great victory for all cannabis activists, it would still consider recreational use illegal to the fullest extent of the law. This is when we delve into the heart of the issue, most people fighting for the legalization of the ganja are not sufferers of cancer, AIDS, or glaucoma. Most of these activists have their own agenda and see the medical legalization as a stepping stone to complete legalization.

Please do not misunderstand me, if you are suffering from any of these ailments you have my greatest sympathy and prayers. I cannot begin to understand how difficult your pain and struggle is. However, for every one of the medical problems aforementioned, medicine already has a more safe and legal treatment through which thousands of patients have been helped each year. In fact, the United States is one of the most medically advanced countries in the world.

I have a personal friend who told me that he smoked Marijuana for medicinal purposes since it helped his asthma. I believe that this excuse is extremely lacking. Marijuana has been known to cause asthma and chronic Bronchitis along with minimizing lung capacity. The treatment for asthma is an inhaler, which is a lot less expensive than a $25 bag of weed that could put you in jail. Prescribed medicine is usually less expensive than marijuana and does not involve a risk. In addition, with the use of legal medicine through prescription, you have the professional counseling of a doctor who has studied medicine for years and knows the best and safest way to help you enjoy a good and fast recovery.

All of this aside, we must realize that marijuana has been made illegal for a reason, much like morphine, cocaine and many other drugs that have been used in the past for medical purposes. Although it may have a few good underlying purposes, marijuana causes more harm than it does good. Anything that you smoke will hurt you. Marijuana includes the same dangers as cigarettes, and many more. Along with all of the lung coating risks of cancer, emphysema and cardiac problems, marijuana also causes impotency, memory loss, brain cell destruction and much more. The psychoactive ingredient of marijuana, Tetrhydrocannabinol (THC), whether smoked or eaten, saturates and causes damage to every system in your body. THC causes hallucinations and pleasure-giving effects (Funk and Wagnalls 445).

I truly believe that Marijuana is the most deceptive drug used today, because of its mildness. Unlike all other hard-core illegal drugs available on the streets today that are easily identified as addictive because of the physical withdrawal symptoms that occur, a marijuana user receives a psychological dependence/addiction which deceives him. Because there are no physical signs of addiction, the user believes that he does not need another hit, he just simply chooses to take one. Eventually he finds out quite the contrary when he tries to quit. Thousands of rehabilitation centers are filled with marijuana users who previously thought that they could easily quit any time. As Gregory MacDonald, a botanical expert, said in referring to Cannabis Sativa, "although it may be used for positive purposes such as rope, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN USE AND ABUSE."

If you wish to discuss this topic, please visit our FORUM.

If you wish to discuss any of these topics, please visit our FORUM.

Do you have a question that is not answered here?
If so, please send it to
and your response may be added to the F.A.Q.