Posted by Route66Kid on July 06, 1998 at 18:12:18:
In Reply to: Legalize marijuana posted by Chris on July 05, 1998 at 16:58:15:
: Any thoughts?
Decriminalizing the recreational use of marijuana is a whole separate issue from legalizing its use for accepted medical therapy. With that in mind, lets examine a few facts.
The active ingredient in cannabis which is useful in controlling chemotherapy-induced nausea, the wasting syndrome of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome via appetite stimulation and lowering the intraocular pressure in glaucoma sufferers is the compound known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). In 1985 the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the drug dronabinol which is a synthetically derived form of THC which is marketed under the trade name Marinol which still available for oral prescription in the US. Marinol as a pharmaceutical has some side effects such as increased resting heart rate and orthostatic hypotension which are undesirable in individuals with certain concurrent cardiac pathologies. Seeing how there are much newer agents to treat chemo-induced nausea which have negligible to no effects on hemodynamics, Marinol has been relegated to being a third or even fourth line drug for
that purpose (it is my understanding that it never was a first line drug for that purpose anyway).
Everyone please understand that I operate on this issue from the foundation of the first rule of medicine which is to do no harm. I am steadfastly against any agenda which seeks to promote the inhaling of smoke of any kind as legitimate medical therapy. I have no problem with a legal adult choosing to smoke marijuana on a (preferably discreet) recreational basis but to attempt to fool the public that inhaling a substance which by its inherent nature increases blood levels of carbon monoxide in addition to delivering some twelve known carcinogens and scores of other known chemicals is just plain unethical, IMHO.
That raises what I feel to be a fair question: Who stands to gain the most from legalizing the cultivation, sale, and personal medical use of marijuana? Given the legal availability of Marinol and other rapidly advancing pharmaceutical therapies to treat the conditions for which THC may be indicated, I don't think the patients stand to gain much.
In our collective quest to improve the human condition, may we hold fast to logic and reason.
Regards,
Route66Kid