Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 Canwest News Service Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Referenced: The CMAJ article http://drugsense.org/url/5JzL2sVG Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal - Canada) MEDICINAL MARIJUANA HAS DOWNSIDE: STUDY VANCOUVER -- The use of medical marijuana to relieve pain and other disease symptoms can cause a huge range of adverse effects, say researchers with the University of B.C. and McGill University. Researchers analyzed 31 studies from around the world conducted over the past 40 years and found that while nearly 97 per cent of adverse events were not serious or life-threatening, medicinal marijuana users still have an 86-per-cent increase in the rate of non-serious adverse effects, such as drowsiness and dizziness, compared to non-users. The study is published in today's Canadian Medical Association Journal. Studies on patients taking marijuana have shown that rarely, serious effects have been documented, including multiple sclerosis relapses, convulsions, respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders, urinary infections, cancer tumour progression and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Jean-Paul Collet, one of the study authors who is a UBC professor and pediatrician, said that because of the small numbers of cases and patients, it's impossible to say whether the serious effects were directly related to the cannabis products. "We cannot make any conclusions... we need more information and more research in order to see whether there are any trends," Collet said. Since all the studies analyzed were short term (median of two weeks) the effects of long-term use are poorly understood. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake