Peter March column: Cannabis is the best medicine

Wilson Hodder, Chairman of the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia, wants to say,
openly, that he uses cannabis and that he uses it regularly. In fact, he
uses the cannabis as a medicine and says that he usually carries some with
him. He even carries it when he travels from province to province and
across borders.

Hodder wants to make a legal issue of his right to use cannabis for
medicinal purposes. He argues that, for him, cannabis is the best
antinausea drug available as well as the least harmful sleep enhancer.

Like other AIDS sufferers Hodder has been required to take large quantities
of drugs every day or die. But these drugs cause severe nauseas.
Marijuana, taken by smoking, is the drug of choice among AIDS patients for
combating both the nausea and the lack of hunger generated by these huge
doses of drugs.

Hodder says when an AIDS patient needs cannabis, a local informal
underground organization will supply it. He says that even some of the
pushers have contributed free cannabis for this purpose.

Pharmaceutical companies, who can't patent a plant, are, of course, very
concerned about the effect this inexpensive drug will have on their bottom
line.

I met Wilson on Friday in the Amadeus on Spring Garden Road. He tells me
that he has had diagnosed AIDS since 1988. A succession of drugs have kept
him alive but that they are now less effective. He is now more likely to
become extremely ill.

Despite his disease, Wilson Hodder is a cheerful, wellbuilt, and
absolutely straightforward man. And he is ready for one last fight: the
fight to establish the basic right of people to take whatever drugs they
need to enable them to sleep, to keep from feeling sick or from dying of
malnutrition. Hodder is convinced as are scientists generally that
marijuana is, far and away, the most effective and least harmful drug
available for these problems. Hodder is willing to go to jail to establish
that right.

After meeting Hodder I think he would be found smoking the drug even in
jail. I should warn the authorities that Hodder is eerily similar to
Lieutenant Marsaw the man who defied the Navy and went on a hungerstrike
to get justice. We really do have some very tough, principled people here
in Nova Scotia.

Hodder is not alone in his opinion that marijuana should be legalized for
medical purposes. In February the United States' prestigious National
Institute of Health held a scientific round table discussion on the
medicinal use of marijuana. This blue ribbon panel came out firmly in
favour of legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes. Of the eight invited
panelists, seven said that the drug has valid medical use and no
significant sideeffects.

The text of that discussion is available as a matter of record at
http://www.mpp.org/nihquotes.html

Excerpts include: "We know that for some people, it makes a difference. ...
[Evidence] does clearly show that marijuana increases the appetite,
increases caloric intake. ... I don't think there's any doubt about its
effectiveness, at least in some people with glaucoma. ... Smoked marijuana
does have an effect on spasticity. ... It's a very safe drug. ... Smoking
is an outstanding route of administration. ... The truth is it probably
does work, assuming that it contains the active ingredient [THC] that we've
already proven does work, so it's going to work."

Reflecting this medical reality, last week the prestigious New England
Journal of Medicine launched a stunning attack on the U.S. federal response
to California's Proposition 215, a ballot initiative that gave medical
marijuana users a legal defense for possessing and growing cannabis for
medical purposes.

The article reiterates the opinion of the journal's editorinchief from an
editorial earlier this year, that it is "misguided, heavyhanded, and
inhumane" to prevent doctors from suggesting to their suffering patients
that they try cannabis, and makes a strong case that cannabis must be
reclassified so that legal impediments to its medical use are eliminated.
The article concludes: "Research should go on, and while it does, marijuana
should be available to all patients who need it to help them undergo
treatment for life threatening illnesses."

The text of that article is available as a matter of record at
http://www.nejm.org:80/public/1997/0337/0006/0435/1.htm

All of this is happening in the United States, but events in Canada are
likely to support Hodder’s demand for basic civil rights in this matter. On
August 14, a court in London, Ontario, will hand down its decision in the
Chris Clay case Clay was arrested for breaking our country's marijuana
laws. Lawyers for Clay have argued that the prohibition against marijuana
is unconstitutional.

Information about the Clay constitutional challenge can be found at
http://www.hempnation.com/?home2/

In the Clay case, even the expert witness brought forward by the
prosecution apparently admitted he thought marijuana should be
decriminalized. Of course, the defense had provided a whole bevy of experts
saying the very same thing.

And, if Chris Clay wins his case as he may well then the absurd law
against marijuana will finally be struck down. If that happens, Wilson
Hodder will be allowed to use marijuana for his nausea, as an aid to sleep
and without fear of being jailed as a "criminal".

Most of us will agree with this outcome. In the last Health Canada survey,
fully twothirds of Canadians agreed that marijuana should be decriminalized.

See you at the Public Gardens on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m., near the
bandstand weather permitting.

(Peter March teaches philosophy at Saint Mary’s University)