Pubdate: Mon, 17 May 2010
Source: Summit Daily News (CO)
Copyright: 2010 Summit Daily News
Contact: http://apps.summitdaily.com/forms/letter/index.php
Website: http://www.summitdaily.com/home.php
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/587
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n363/a06.html?1241
Author: Redford Givens, Webmaster, DRCNet Online Library of Drug 
Policy, San Francisco

MARIJUANA MYTHS

Re: "Marijuana not totally safe" by Michael Orlin, letters, May 12

Michael Orlin may be a "medical professional," but his opinions about 
marijuana and immunosuppression are seriously flawed and long out of 
date. It appears Orlin bases his immunosuppression theory on the work 
of disgraced cannabophobe Dr. Gabriel Nahas who tried to prove 
immunosuppression in vitro by using massive amounts of cannabis that 
were near lethal when applied to animals. No other researchers have 
ever been able to replicate Nahas's work, and Nahas was kicked out of 
Columbia University because of his fraudulent research on marijuana.

The immunosuppression myth is based on studies where animals were 
given extremely high - in many cases, near-lethal -doses of 
cannabinoids. These results have never been duplicated in human 
beings. Interestingly, two studies done in 1978 and one done in 1988 
showed that hashish and marijuana actually stimulated the immune 
system in the people studied. The recent discovery of a cannabinoid 
receptor inside rat spleens, where immune cells reside, raises the 
likelihood that cannabinoids exert a positive influence on the immune system.

As a member of the St. Joseph Hospital Pain Management team, no doubt 
Orlin comes into contact with some real immune damage caused by 
anti-cancer drugs such as Cisplatin, Chlorambucil, Carboplatin and 
nitrogen mustards that destroy the patient's ability to fight a host 
of common infections. Anti-cancer drugs are so highly toxic to the 
immune system that patients are warned to stay away from people with 
colds, flus and other common infections that might be fatal with the 
immune system shut down.

Not one case of marijuana-induced immune deficiency has ever been 
clinically or epidemiologically detected in humans.

Source:
Myth: Marijuana Damages the Immune System 
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3475#16

Is marijuana bad for the immune system?

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=128

The National Commission On Marihuana And Drug Abuse Marihuana: A 
Signal Of Misunderstanding: SCIENTIFIC OVERSIMPLIFICATION 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/nc/mis2_12.htm

The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cu5.html

Psychoactive Substances and Violence

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/psycviol.htm

Programme For A Medical Prescription Of Narcotics 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/heroin/programme.htm

Status Report On The Medical Prescription Of Narcotics.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/library%5Ctlcswiss.cfm

Swiss Heroin Maintenance Program Declared a Success
http://www.ndsn.org/AUGUST97/SWISS.html

Swiss Voters Overwhelmingly Support Heroin Maintenance Program
http://www.ndsn.org/novdec97/swiss.htm

Did Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Alcohol Consumption and
Crime?

http://www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm and
http://www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm#a2

Should the amphetamines be prohibited? 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/cu/cu40.htm

Redford Givens, Webmaster
DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy, San Francisco
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart