Dear Editor:
Recent articles and letters to the editor have stressed the potential dangers of marijuana legalization.
As an antidote to this scare-mongering, I’d like to point out recent scientific studies that indicate that marijuana – a drug that’s been used as medicine since 2737 BC – is safe and effective.
The United States’ National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine in 1999 found extensive evidence that marijuana has medicinal value for patients suffering from pain, nausea, appetite loss and other symptoms of illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS, and that marijuana and cannabinoids have a “generally excellent safety profile.”
In fact, medicinal marijuana is relatively benign compared to many routinely prescribed drugs. The largest and best-controlled studies of marijuana use have consistently found that marijuana smokers – even the heaviest smokers – do not have higher-than-average rates of lung cancer or other typically tobacco-related cancers.
In the U.S., of the 13 medical marijuana states, 11 have data showing that adolescent marijuana use has declined since medical marijuana became legal. One-fifth of the U.S. population now lives in states with medical marijuana laws, but there is no published evidence that the medical use of marijuana has led to an increase in motor vehicle accidents in any of these states.
In a recent clinical study from Israel, 2,736 seniors used marijuana for six months; 93.7% of the respondents reported improvement in their condition, and reported pain levels were reduced by half. Adverse side effects were minor and rare. Furthermore, after six months, 18.1% of the patients had reduced or eliminated their dose of opioid analgesics.
While I support the legalization of recreational marijuana, I am more concerned that excessive controls and restrictions surrounding legalization might result in reduced access for those – especially a growing number of seniors – who depend on marijuana as medicine. At present, patients requiring medicinal marijuana in Ontario often are required to travel some distance to a clinic where they undergo conditions which are humiliating, insulting and cruel, in no way commensurate with the risk.
Old, sick patients wait for hours to be seen at the Soviet-style legal clinics, then are required to submit a urine sample before being seen. Their supply of medicine is tightly controlled – what kind, how much, how often – with little or no justification. Visits to the clinic are required every three months.
Perhaps this approach might be appropriate if the patients were prisoners, but they’re not: they’re sick people for whom medicinal marijuana has proven helpful. Instead of treating them like criminals, we should do everything we can to improve their access to medicinal marijuana.
Jim Zimmerman, INVERHAUGH