Eng 1101 - Medicinal Marijuana

English 1101

18 Nov. 2010

Medicinal Marijuana

For this essay I chose to write about medicinal marijuana. When I was growing up, I never knew anything about marijuana until I got to higher grades in school and they started to explain the dangers of using drugs. I knew people in the USA used marijuana for recreational purposes even though it was illegal.

My first experience that I had with marijuana was when I went with my husband to a concert in the Madison Square Garden, in New York City. As soon as we walked into the arena all you could see and smell was a cloud of marijuana smoke. The first thought that came to my mind was: what effect can marijuana have on me by just smelling it? During most of the concert I covered my nose; first of all because I didn't like the smell and secondly, I was worried about any side effects of secondhand marijuana smoke. I have never been able to figure out why people like to smoke marijuana.

Years afterwards, I saw in the news that people were lobbying to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. I believe that these people are marijuana smokers who are trying to find a way to smoke marijuana legally. After a friend of mine was diagnosed with lung cancer, she was told that the use of marijuana could alleviate some of the side effects of chemotherapy. This caused me to reconsider my stands on marijuana and to investigate more on the benefits of it.

Since I don't know much about medicinal marijuana, my first article that I read was a report on "Extensive research concerning medicinal marijuana" written by Ad Hoc Group of Experts, which is a group of ten doctors and professors that work in different hospitals and universities.

Ad Hoc Group of Experts said that different clinical studies were performed mainly to find out for which conditions marijuana has a potential as a treatment and merit further study. Smoked marijuana offers advantages over the currently available synthetic THC capsule (Marinol, Dronabinol). The group noted that although THC is the main ingredient of the cannabis leaf, there may be other compounds in the leaf that have therapeutic properties. One of their studies was to evaluate the effectiveness of smoked marijuana over the synthetic THC for the relief of nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. Of the 20 patients studied nine had no preference, seven preferred the synthetic and four preferred the smoked. The Group of Experts concluded that for cancer patients experiencing nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, the inhalation route may offer advantages over the currently available capsule form. Since there are high concentrations of tar in marijuana caution should be used when prescribed since there are some risks when used frequent and prolonged. There is a possibility of impairment of the immune system and adverse effects on the lungs. Before making any decision in which treatment is best for the patients, the benefit/risk calculation should be considered (Ad Hoc Group).

After The Group of Experts stated in their report that smoked marijuana has additional benefits that cannot be found in the synthetic THC it has changed somewhat my view on the use of smoked marijuana. In the case of my friend with lung cancer, I am not convinced if marijuana will be beneficial for her. It seems that it will alleviate her nausea and vomiting but at the same time The Group of Experts stated in their report that there are some adverse effects on the lungs after frequent and prolonged use of marijuana.

Later on, I found another article where Christian Nolan from Connecticut Law Tribune, interviews Senator Penny Bacchiochi whose husband is suffering from bone cancer. In the interview Sen. Bacchiochi expresses what it's like to watch a love one suffer. After all the chemotherapy treatments he lost 80lbs., frail and unable to swallow the large doses of prescription medication that were doing little to help his extreme nausea (Bracchiochi). "He needed his doctor's advice to smoke marijuana" (Nolan). "He regained his appetite and kept food in his stomach"(Bacchiochi).

This article makes me believe that since Nolan works for a newspaper that deals with legal issues, he was trying to show us that medicinal marijuana was beneficial and should be legalized. Nolan wanted to prove to us that even politicians agree on the use of medicinal marijuana. One thing that I couldn't understand was that if Sen. Bracchiochi knew that marijuana could benefit her husband why did she wait for him to deteriorate before she even consulted with his doctor?

I read an article published in Science Blog, where a study done at the School of Medicine at UCLA mentions a study they did to find out the link between marijuana use and lung cancer. The findings were a surprise to the researchers. "We expected that we would find that a history of heavy marijuana use---more than 500-1,000 uses---would increase the risk of cancer from several years to decades after exposure to marijuana," said Donald Tashkin, M.D. Subjects were asked about lifetime use of marijuana, tobacco and alcohol, as well as other drugs (Tashkin). The heavy smokers in the study smoked more than 22,000 marijuana cigarettes, while the moderately heavy smokers had smoked between 11,000 to 22,000 joints. The study