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.