Does Marijuana have Medical Value?

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Typical of medical marijuana opponents, Drug Free America Foundation tosses out a succession of irrelevancies, half-truths, and out-and-out falsehoods to try to confuse the issue.

First, there is no such thing as "the active chemical in marijuana." There are 66 known cannabinoids -- biologically active chemicals unique to marijuana -- and many have been documented to have therapeutic benefits, but only one, THC, is available in pill form. THC, however, is responsible for all of the "high" experienced by marijuana users. Indeed, the American College of Physicians has noted that the psychoactive side effects of the pill are "more severe" than natural marijuana.

Because cannabinoids are fat-soluble, they are absorbed slowly and unevenly when taken orally, making effective dose control nearly impossible. The American College of Physicians and the Institute of Medicine, among others, have taken note of this. And the prestigious medical journal The Lancet Neurology, has written,  “Oral administration is probably the least satisfactory route for cannabis.”

And no, marijuana does not damage the immune system. In recent years, several controlled clinical trials of medical marijuana in HIV/AIDS patients have consistently found no sign of immune system impairment or other serious side effects.

DFAF makes much of the fact that there are other medicines used to treat the symptoms for which marijuana is used. While true, this is utterly irrelevant, because those medicines don't work for everyone. Again, the Institute of Medicine noted this specifically in its report, "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base."

One of the most promising uses for medical marijuana is in the treatment of neuropathic pain (pain from damage to the nerves), which causes misery for millions of patients with diabetes, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions. This type of pain is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs, and marijuana has now been shown to provide safe, effective relief three separate clinical trials.