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.