MARIJUANA TOO RISKY FOR PEDIATRIC CARE

A University of Southern California medical professor and mother of two has
suggested that standard treatments for Attention Deficit Disorder should
include the prescription of marijuana. Dr. Claudia Jensen suggests
treatments using cannabis would be preferable to some drugs already
federally approved and administered by practitioners nationwide.

Medical use of marijuana warrants controlled scientific studies conducted
by appropriate research facilities, but at this point the drug remains
illegal and its benefits are purely speculative. Consequently, doctors
should not freely suggest its use, especially in respect to children with
irregular behavioral patterns.

Furthermore, without conclusive results from thorough research, there is no
reasonable motivation to fully legalize and standardize its use. If it is
to be legalized at all, the illicit weed must undergo the same rigorous
testing as any other market place drug before it is legally authorized as a
prescription medicine. Moreover, the federal government must demand the
demonstration of significant advantages in marijuana treatments before
granting approval.

Should federal authorities begin to contemplate the merits of medical
marijuana, its status in respect to children should be considered with
particular caution. In a time in which ADD diagnoses have appeared in
frighteningly large proportions, presenting yet another drug for liberal
provision of chemical treatments may promote further exclusion of
alternative methods.

The concept of deliberately doping children demonstrating undesirable
behavioral patterns is at best disconcerting and only appealing in the most
genuine circumstances of medical duress. If legalized, marijuana's
administration must be tightly controlled, lest the nation acquire a
population of youths mercilessly subdued by the application of cannabis
prescriptions.

The concept of legally harvesting backyard varieties of the plant for home
medicine, as suggested by Jensen, risks exactly that. Presently, without
medical evidence to suggest the treatment's legitimacy, the concept is
nothing short of repugnant.

Moreover, the opportunity for deliberate manipulation of children to gain
illegal access to the drug by cannabis abusers is a horrifying moral hazard
whose weight must be considered during the process of the medical marijuana
debate.

Prescription drug use is an increasingly concerning trend within the United
States. Americans seem to be chained to the schedule of their various
treatments like never before. Society must consider how much more it is
willing to rely on access to drugs to solve the diverse collection of
afflictions suffered within the country, especially when the drug in issue
is a potentially destructive substance subject to popular misuse or abuse.