Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jun 2016
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 2016 The Columbus Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93
Author: John Zawada

'BETTER MEDS' DON'T WORK FOR ALL

Doctors against medical marijuana should stop pretending present 
pharmaceuticals are any less dangerous.

The shear ignorance and bias in many of the articles written against 
the legalization of medical marijuana - many of them by doctors no 
less - is astounding and shameful. They speak as if we don't already 
have medicines derived from opium, from which heroin, morphine, 
oxycodone and the like are derived, or the coca plant that produces 
cocaine (which led to the discovery of lidocaine, etc.), as well as 
dozens of other highly toxic and/or addictive herbs.

Anyone who has seen a pharmaceutical ad knows man-made drugs tend to 
be no less harmful than their nature-derived cousins.

Marijuana is not entirely without addiction/dependence liability, but 
compared with sedatives, painkillers, stimulants, and, most 
importantly, alcohol, the risk is enormously lower. Mere days of 
excessive use of these other drugs can easy addict, marijuana by 
comparison takes months of heavy use to achieve the same effect.

Nearly every study has been so excessively biased one way or the 
other that virtually any consensus could be made.

As for the "there are better medicines" argument, why don't we make 
only one or two of the "best medicines" available for each ailment? 
Because, of course, these are only the "best medicines" on average, 
not for any individual, and any good doctor can confirm that 
medicines nearly always affect different people differently on some level.

A list of marijuana's benefits - in treating neuropathic pain, 
migraines, inflammation, weight loss/nausea, and in slowing dementia, 
including Alzheimer's - barely scratches the surface. Considering the 
marijuana receptors' ubiquity in the body, denying the potential of 
medicine prepared from it is utterly insane.

Enough fear-mongering. Alcohol prohibition failed miserably and this 
pot prohibition has too. It's time to admit it.

John Zawada

Columbus
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