In my work as an emergency physician and as a county coroner, I frequently order tests to determine whether a person has illicit drugs in their blood or urine. While I am not naive enough to think that all people will turn out to be clean and sober, I am amazed at how many people have a positive test for cannabinoids, which are the active ingredients in marijuana (Cannabis sativa).

I recognize that there are some legitimate medical uses for cannabinoids. However, the people with the positive tests are generally not suffering from nausea, vomiting, pain, loss of appetite, asthma, glaucoma, nor spasticity. They have been consuming marijuana for other reasons.

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There are many different points of view with regard to whether and how to regulate the sale and use of chemicals that affect our ability to think clearly. Of course, the prime example here in the United States is the consumption of alcohol. Our government has wrestled with that issue to the point of passing two constitutional amendments about it, one to prohibit alcohol, the other to make alcohol legal again. In the meantime, ethanol alcohol remains a relatively simple, natural, organic compound with some good and some bad health effects.

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