Existing Medicines are not Adequate Substitutes

Opponents of medical marijuana often claim that effective medicines exist for the symptoms that marijuana treats. This is clearly not true in some cases, such as neuropathic pain (discussed above), as well as the spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis.

But even where accepted treatments do exist, it is universally understood in medicine that every drug doesn't work for every patient. That's why we don't have just one pain drug or one nausea drug, and that's why drug companies spend billions of dollars inventing and testing new drugs. The Institute of Medicine stated this succinctly: “[T]here will likely always be a subpopulation of patients who do not respond well to other medications.”

In a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004, a group of individuals and organizations that included the Lymphoma Foundation of America and the HIV Medicine Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America stated, "These studies have consistently found (1) that marijuana is an effective antiinflammatory, analgesic, appetite-stimulating, antiemetic, and antispasmodic agent; (2) that its side effects are often less debilitating than those of drugs currently approved for treating the same ailments; and (3) that for some individuals it is the only meaningful option. For certain persons the medical use of marijuana can literally mean the difference between life and death."

A pill containing THC, the component responsible for marijuana's "high," called Marinol, is not an adequate substitute for most patients. It does not contain all of the components responsible for marijuana's therapeutic benefits XXACP