Pubdate: Tue, 04 Mar 2008
Source: Daily Campus, The (UConn, CT Edu)
Copyright: 2008 ThesDaily Campus
Contact:  http://www.dailycampus.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2778
Author: Greg Pivarnik
Note: Weekly columnist Greg Pivarnik is an 8th-semester molecular and 
cell biology major.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS BENEFIT BIG BUSINESS

Marijuana has medicinal uses. Despite numerous scientific studies and 
the development of synthetic medicines derived from cannabis, the 
United States government appears to disagree with this statement. 
Marijuana remains a Schedule I drug according to the DEA, which only 
benefits the pharmaceutical companies who now have a monopoly on the 
therapeutic effects of a plant that can be grown with little effort.

Under the Controlled Substances Act, the DEA lists and categorizes 
drugs, illegal and pharmaceutical, into five categories or schedules. 
According to the DEA Web site, the drugs are placed in a schedule 
based upon "the substance's medical use, potential for abuse, and 
safety or dependence liability." Schedule I drugs are considered the 
most addictive and have no medical use and are considered the most 
dangerous. Schedule II drugs have some medical benefits but are 
highly addictive and so on until Schedule V. Marijuana is considered 
a Schedule I drug, along with heroin and LSD, because it has a "high 
potential for abuse" and "has no currently accepted medical use in 
treatment in the United States." Apparently though, PCP and cocaine 
have more of a medical basis considering they are Schedule II drugs.

Unfortunately, the rescheduling of marijuana is something that may be 
far off in the future, despite research pointing to the possible 
benefits of medicinal use. Scientists studying its medicinal 
properties have already found a number of possible medical uses. Most 
notably, marijuana can be used to treat pain and nausea associated 
with a number of diseases. It is mostly prescribed, in states that 
allow for its medicinal use, for pain and nausea associated with 
terminal illnesses. Many times marijuana has been found to be one of 
the more effective drugs to treat these symptoms. Extreme pain is 
often associated with severe illnesses such as cancers, AIDS and 
multiple sclerosis (MS). Marijuana also reduces nausea associated 
with chemotherapy and AIDS patients. It stimulates appetite and 
allows patients to eat so they do not lose an excessive amount of 
weight. Marijuana has been proven to be an effective treatment for 
neuropathic pain and can control muscle spasms in diseases li! ke MS. 
However, MS is not the only disease associated with neuropathic pain. 
There are many other diseases and disorders that can benefit from 
possible treatments of marijuana. Marijuana has also been found to 
treat patients with glaucoma by relieving pressure in the eyeball and 
therefore possibly preventing the blindness associated with the 
disease. Lastly, there are also the well known calming affects of 
marijuana that could be used to treat severe anxieties and obsessive 
compulsive disorder.

The main reason that marijuana remains illegal, or at least not used 
as medication, is money. Too many companies in the pharmaceutical 
industry stand to lose too much money from competing with medicinal 
marijuana. The Pharmaceutical companies do research, create a 
synthetically made chemical for a treatment of a certain disease and 
then patent. U.S. patents last around 20 years and effectively give 
the company a monopoly on that drug. This in turn drives the price up 
for many years after FDA approval, until the patent runs out and 
generic forms of the drug are made available. The reason that drug 
companies would not want marijuana manufactured is that it can been 
grown cheaply and easily. It could effectively be a less costly 
alternative to the drug therapies that patients can access now and 
may treat myriad of disease that could infringe on the consumer 
market of other medications.

The amount of money derived from the pharmaceutical industry, and 
hence the lobbyists that work for them, has led to an inherent 
hypocrisy in U.S. policy towards marijuana. While listing marijuana 
as a Schedule I drug, which supposedly has no medical benefits, the 
U.S. still allows pharmaceutical companies to conduct research and 
make products that harness the medicinal powers of THC, the main 
psychoactive chemical in marijuana. This already implies that 
marijuana has medicinal benefit and therefore should not be listed as 
a Schedule I drug. One such drug, Marinol, is already available for 
prescription use in the U.S. to treat the side effects associated 
with chemotherapy and AIDS patients. Another marijuana based drug, 
Sativex, which is used to treat MS, has already been approved in 
Canada and has begun trials in the U.S.

It is unfair for the government to conduct a smear campaign against 
medicinal marijuana, while at the same time allowing drug companies 
to purify it and market products for staggering amounts of profit. 
For instance, the base cost per year of Sativex in Canada $4,475. 
This price is only an estimate before pharmacy costs. On top of that, 
this estimate only takes into account a minimal amount of doses. 
Sativex is a spray administered via the mouth. The average dosage is 
five sprays a day. However, the dosage is variable up to 14 sprays, 
which would also increase the costs.

There are those that would say it is beneficial for the drug 
companies to purify the drugs because smoking marijuana is itself a 
health risk. A risk it may be, but taking any medicine is a risk. In 
fact, an article in Scientific America espoused a study that 
concluded that there is no scientific link between lung cancer and 
smoking marijuana. It was thought that THC "prompts aging cells to 
die before coming cancerous." A more recent study has seemed to 
confirm this conclusion. In a lab study, mice with tumors were 
injected with THC and showed a 50 percent decrease in tumor size 
after three weeks as compared with untreated mice. Though the studies 
are preliminary, they still nonetheless cast doubt on long held myths 
in marijuana.

In the end the only beneficiaries of the current medicinal marijuana 
policy in the United States are the drug companies. Patients are 
forced to dole out money for a synthetic form of a medicine that 
could be grown and obtained naturally and possibly far more cheaply. 
Of course a side effect of smoking marijuana is that one would get 
high. However, these side effects no different from warning labels on 
other medications that indicate drowsiness and warn people against 
driving and operating heavy machinery. In turn, the question can be 
asked - What makes a synthetically made chemical safer and more 
effective than a naturally growing plant? There is a risk when taking 
any medication. There have been well-known cases in which people have 
died taking prescription drugs. However, it is nearly impossible to 
overdose on marijuana.

In the end, the only difference between pharmaceutical marijuana and 
smoking marijuana is that pharmaceutical products create enormous 
amounts of revenue for big business, while medicinal marijuana would 
only benefit the citizens of this country that are in dire need of 
cheap and effective medication. And as always, the government sides 
with big business.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom