MEDICAL POT SMOKERS SEEKING A HIGH

I am a pharmacist with 36 years' experience in San Diego. I read the
article on pot use by people who have chronic illnesses that cause pain and
nausea.

The article does not mention that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active
ingredient in marijuana, is legal and available under the name of Marinol.
It can be purchased with a prescription from a physician at any pharmacy.
Marinol, like other drugs for AIDS and cancer, is covered under most
insurance plans, including Medi-Cal.

Why do the users choose smoking as the drug delivery system? Smoking is an
extremely dirty dosage system. Do they know that three marijuana cigarettes
have approximately the same amount of cancer-causing tar as 20 tobacco
cigarettes? Do they know that carbon monoxide produced by the burning
process displaces oxygen from the red blood cells? Do they know that
smoking is an inexact dosage system? How would one know how much one has
consumed since different plants have different THC levels, and people smoke
at different rates? Do they know that marijuana use is associated with
significantly increased incidence of mental illness and psychological
disorders?

So why is it that people can't or don't want to use Marinol, which is
available in a clean and exact dosage form? I suspect that Marinol capsules
just do not produce the high that smoking the plant produces. And isn't
this, after all, what our users are after?

Marijuana does not cure anything ---- not cancer or degenerative spine
disease or scoliosis or any of the other conditions mentioned in the
article. I am sorry for these folks with these serious medical conditions,
and I think we are doing them a disservice by not providing them with all
the expertise of a rational medical community. There are effective and much
safer drugs and treatments that should not be overlooked. The smoking of
marijuana simply does not make medical sense.

North County resident Ken Strang is a pharmacist in Oceanside.