PROBLEMS WITH THE PILL

"A Fathers Tale" (12/3) demonstrates only one of the known problems
with the pill form of marijuana - that people suffering from severe
nausea can't keep a pill down. Others problems include the fact that
the pill contains only one of 60 known active cannabinoids. These
other cannabinoids have been shown to be quite effective in clinical
trials in Great Britain.

The dosage is extremely difficult to control. Even with varying
available doses, most patients complain that they get too "high" with
no relief, or get no relief at all - evidence that natural
cannabinoids work in conjunction to provide relief.

The time the pill takes to provide relief is up to a hour and a half
in some cases. Smoking cannabis may seem crude by today's standards,
but it is in fact the most effective means of delivering the
cannabinoids directly to the bloodstream. Vaporization, another means
of inhalation, is as effective as smoking, while eliminating the
particulate matter (smoke) from the process.

The ultimate irony of the marijuana pill is that, despite the
insistence by the government that marijuana has no medical use, they
also insist that people who may benefit from marijuana take a
synthetic cannabis pill instead.

Marijuana should be regulated for medical use, and government should
stay out of the business of patients and their doctors.

Jim White

Vice President, Ohio Patient Network

Oregon, Ohio