Should Medical Marijuana be Federally Legalized?

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Controlled clinical studies and literally 5,000 years of real-world experience have demonstrated that medical marijuana can safely and effectively relieve certain types of pain, the nausea, vomiting and wasting often associated with cancer chemotherapy and HIV/AIDS treatment, and debilitating spasticity or seizures caused by a variety of neurological disorders. In a 1999 White House-commissioned review of the medical evidence, the prestigious Institute of Medicine reported, "Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting and all can be mitigated by marijuana."
   
Recent studies using smoked marijuana have proven that marijuana can safely and effectively relieve neuropathic pain -- pain caused by damage to nerves, which is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs, including highly addictive narcotics.. Trials published in 2007 and 2008 documented relief of neuropathic pain associated with HIV/AIDS, MS, and other causes, with remarkably few side effects.
   
Nausea and vomiting are common side effects of treatments for many deadly illnesses, including cancer, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS. In severe cases this can lead to life-threatening wasting, and can force patients to discontinue the treatment that could keep them alive. Relief of these treatment side effects can literally save lives. A study from the University of California, San Francisco, published in the September 2006 European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, found that marijuana users being treated for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) were three times more likely than those who didn’t use marijuana to have a “sustained virological response” — i.e. HCV could not be detected six months after they completed treatment, the outcome considered the standard for successful HCV treatment. The marijuana-using patients were much more likely to successfully complete their anti-HCV drug regimens, leading the researchers to conclude, “Our results suggest that moderate cannabis use during HCV treatment may offer significant benefit to certain patients.”
   
A wide variety of medical and public health organizations have recognized the medical value of marijuana. These include the American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association, American College of Physicians, American Academy of HIV Medicine, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and far too many more to list.