Obama's Medical Marijuana Policy - A Step in the Right Direction

It isn't just marijuana users that advocate the use of marijuana for medical problems. In a nationwide public opinion poll, 72% of respondents supported the medical use of marijuana under a physician's recommendation. Even the former U.S. Surgeon General, Jocelyn Elders, M.D., said, "The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nauseau, vomiting, and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer, and AIDS --- or by the harsh drugs sometimes used to treat them. And it can do so with remarkable safety. Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than many of the drugs that physicians prescribe everyday."

On October 19, 2009, the Obama Administration announced new guidelines stating federal agents should not arrest or prosecute medical marijuana patients or their caregivers if they are in compliance with state laws.

In United State's, marijuana has gone through a full circle of popularity. In the beginning of United State's history, famers in Jamestown Colony in 1619 were ordered to grow it. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp as a crop. In 1840, cannabis was available in U.S. pharmacies. In fact the criminalization of marijuana has less to do with it's health effects than it did with racism, greed, and spurious lies for self-promotion.

According to an internet article, Why is Marijuana Illegal, "the criminalization of marijuna was based on racism; fear; protection of corporate profits; yellow journalism; ignorant, incompetent, and/or corrupt legislators; and personal career advancement and greed. " The criminalization of marijuana was based on racism against Mexicans and Blacks and erroneous beliefs about it's usuage making people crazy and violent. Ironically, California was the first state to criminalize marijuana and also the first state to decriminalize marijuana for medical use in 1996. After California, between 1915 and 1927, Wyoming, Texas, Iowa, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas, and Nebraska followed suit.

The next phase of marijuana regulation began with Harry J. Anslinger. Supposedly, as the first commissioner of the Bureau of Narcotics in 1930, he was worried that opiate and cocaine legislation would not be enough to build his agency so he started attacking marijuana too. His beliefs about marijuana were biased and untrue. In 1937, he reportedy said, "There are 100,000 marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. Their marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." Can you imagine a person like this holding his office for 32 years. The statement is not only racist but demeans women.

Using the themes of racism and the violent effects of marijuna, he engaged the additional help from William Randolf Hearst, owner of a large chain of newspapers, on his anti-marijuana crusade. Hearst had four reasons for helping Anslinger. First, he was prejudice against Mexicans. Secondly, he was heavily invested in the timber industry, and he had lost 800,000 thousand acres to Pancho Villa. Third, he didn't want to see the development of hemp paper. And last, because of his prejudice and financial loss to Pancho Villa, he told lies about Mexicans and marijuana which made him rich by selling more newspapers. For example, one of the many flagrant lies he told stated, "Users of marijuana become STIMULATED as they inhale the drug and are LIKELY TO DO ANYTHING. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that drug."

In addition to Anslinger and Hearst, Dupont and other pharmacetical companies jumped on the bandwagon. Dupont had patented nylon and didn't want the competition from hemp. Furthermore, since pharmaceutical companies couldn't standardize cannabis dosages and people could grow it on their own, they weren't in support of marijuana either.

Eventually, the harmful effects of marijuana ended up before Congress. However, even though Dr. William C. Woodward from the Legislative Council of the American Medical Association questioned the accusations not being based on evidence, and the AMA opposed the legislation, the hearing culminated into "The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937." Hence, although it didn't make marijuana illegal, it taxed marijuana so prohibitively high that it was unprofitable to cultivate, process, or sell. Anslinger's anti-marijuana campaign continued until he was fired by John F. Kennedy in 1962 because he attempted to censor the work of Professor Alfred Lindsmith, the author of The Addict and the Law. Unfortunately, the past has biased many people's beliefs, and these beliefs still exist today.

Nowadays, under federal law, a person can be given a year in prison for possesssing as little as one marijuana cigarette and up to five years for growing just one marijuana plant regardless of whether it's for medical use.

During the Bush Administration, the Drug Enforcement Ageny (DEA) raided medical marijuana distributors even if they were acting in accordance to state law. However, the Obama Administration has taken a different stance.

Even though the Obama Administration is supporting the medical use of marijuana in states where it is not illegal, the DEA still does not approve it's use. After the announcement, the DEA's website stated, "Smoked marijuana has not withstood the rigors of science --- it is not medicine and it is not safe."

As of 2008, thirteen states have laws that authorize the cultivation and use of medical marijuana within guidelines under a doctor's recommendation. These states are: Alaska, California, Colorade, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. These states represent approximately 23.5% of the United State's population. Other states have laws recognizing marijuana's medical value, but they are ineffective because they rely on federal cooperation.

Regardless of the opposition, marijuana has many therapeutic uses. They include:

• Relieving nausea and increasing appetite - Marijuana's efficacy in reducing nausea in chemotherapy for cancer has been demonstrated in studies by half a dozen states. Research has found that smoked marijuana is superior to oral THC or Marinol.
• Relieiving muscle spasms and spasticity
• Relieiving chronic pain - Cannabinoid extracts may be beneficial especially in neuropathic pain. British research has found where morphine has failed to control pain in nerve injuries, marijuana does. Supposedly, where you injure a nerve, morphine receptors in the spinal column disappear whereas cannabinoid receptors do not disappear. Accordingly, research has found if you inject small doses of cannabinoid compounds in the spine, it results in pain relief. Another study by the University of California at Davis demonstrated significant relief of neuropathic pain. Thirty-eight patients suffering from diabetic neuropathy, spinal injury, and multiple sclerosis were given marijuana cigarettes in three different strengths - placebo, a cigarette with 3.5% THC, and a cigarette with 7% THC. Both dosages reduced pain significantly and lasted for five hours with minimal side-effects. Furthermore, other studies have shown that using cannabinoids in adjunct with opiods may reduce the effects of nausea. Another British study showed that spraying a cannabis extract under the tongue reduced pain in 18 out of 23 patients suffering from intractabel pain.
• Relieving intraoccular pressure ie. glaucoma
• According to Wikipedia, research has shown it use may prevent the formations of deposits in the brain associateed with Alzheimer's disease; it may reduce tumor growth in lung cancer by 50%; it may stop the spread of breast cancer throughout the body; it increases food intake in those with HIV/AIDS; it may promote the death of brain cancer cells: and injections of THC in rats eliminated opiate dependency and in humans, marijuana use increased the adherence in opiate dependency programs.

Just as there are advocates for the use of medical marijuana, there are also people who are against it. Some of the reasons used against marijuana are:

• Short-term memory loss and decreased skill levels in tasks like driving cars.
• Long-term decrease in brain fuction - This has not been verified.
• Marijuana may cause permanent mental illness. - There is no convincing scientific evidence for this.
• Mildly addictive - One percent of the United States population uses marijuana daily, and an even smaller percentage become dependent.
• It's a gateway to harder drugs - The Rand Study and numerous other research studies have proven this is untrue.
• Legalizing medical use of marijuna is a step in legalizing for it the general public. It undermines the antidrug messages aimed at youth.
• It may affect fetal development
• The build up of THC in the body causes a continual state of sedation
• It may weaken the immune system.
• Marijuana causes lung cancer.
• Marijuana is more potent today.

Before I researched this article, I was apathetic about legalizing it even though I have chronic pain. However, after reading about marijuana's history in the United States and how some of the beliefs about marijuana came into being, I feel differently now. Although I don't support decriminalizing marijuana completely, I do fully support medical marijuana policies. I believe a person has a right to be free of whatever medical problem is ailing them when an option exists. Even though marijuana may not be fully researched, I believe there is enough evidence of it's benefits that it should be legalized for medical use.

Afterall, experimental drugs are used in clinical trials where even less information is known about them than marijuana. Unfortunately, when patients who didn't quaify for medical trials wanted access to these experimental drugs too, it was denied by the courts. Tell me, what right does the government have to deny these people, especially when they are dying? Even though the case with marijuana is not exactly the same, does the government have a right to block access to marijuana when it could alleviate thousands and thousand of people's pain and suffering? Furthermore, many of the reasons why people are against it are applicable to legal drugs too. Legal drugs can also cause birth defects, sedeation, and other negative side effects. Therefore, I believe each individuaI should have the right to decide whether the potential benefits outweigh the disbenefits. Until a person has gone through the same medical condition whether it be pain or something else, they cannot understand it. Consequently, I believe the Obama Administration's new medical marijuana policy is a step in the right direction.

For now, federal law is blind to the wisdom of a future day when the right to use medical marijuana to alleviate excruciating pain may be deemed fundamental. Athough that day has not yet dawned, considering the last ten years eleven states have legalized the use of marijuana, that day may be upon us sooner than expected. ~ Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Raich v. Gonzales, March 2007