Can Marijuana Be Medicine?
THE MEDICAL BOTTOM LINE
Though largely illegal since 1937, marijuana may prove an effective alternative to more commonly prescribed drugs for some diseases. California, Arizona and Massachusetts are leading the fight to make marijuana more readily available. They aren't a lone: 26 states and the District of Columbia have passed various laws and resolutions establishing therapeutic-research programs, allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana, or asking the federal government to lift the ban on medical use.
MARY HAGER in Washington, ADAM ROGERS in New York, CLAUDIA KALB in Boston and PATRICIA KING in San Francisco
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Member Comments
Posted By: jsknow @ 07/02/2008 7:16:28 PM
Comment: THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT MARIJUANA IS A SAFE AND EFFECTIVE MEDICINE. In 1988, after reviewing all evidence brought forth in a lawsuit against the government's prohibition of medical marijuana, the DEA's own administrative law judge (Judge Francis Young) wrote:
"The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the Drug Enforcement Administration to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence."
... Judge Francis Young of the Drug Enforcement Administration went on to say: "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. In strict medical terms, marijuana is safer than many foods we commonly consume." Judge Young recommended that the DEA allow marijuana to be prescribed as medicine, but the DEA has refused.
On March 22, 1972: The Richard Nixon-appointed, 13-member National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended the decriminalization of marijuana, concluding, "[Marijuana's] relative potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it."
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