Does Marijuana have Medical Value?

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All medicines have side effects, but marijuana is remarkably safe. No fatal marijuana overdose has ever been documented in the medical literature, and experts generally agree that it is literally impossible to fatally overdose by smoking marijuana. This can be said for very few drugs. For example, acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, causes approximately 480 overdose deaths per year due to acute liver failure.

In its 1999 review, the Institute of Medicine concluded, “[E]xcept for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications.” While acknowledging that for some patients the benefits of medical marijuana will outweigh the risks of smoking, the report called for development of "a nonsmoked rapid-onset cannabinoid drug delivery system," allowing the fast action and ease of dose adjustment obtained with smoking but without the tars and other irritants in smoke.

Such a system exists today and is known as vaporization. By heating marijuana but not burning it, vaporizers allow inhalation of the active components, called cannabinoids, without the harmful combustion products in smoke. Several recent studies have documented that these devices fulfill the Institute of Medicine's criteria for the safest way to administer medical marijuana.

Medical marijuana's safety has been acknowledged by a variety of medical organizations, including the American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association, and American College of Physicians.