Let's look at this issue a bit more methodically.

Now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer, there is no doubt in anybody's mind regarding the harmful effects of smoking. Smoking is so bad that the effects actually cause illness in others through second hand smoke. In fact many cities have prohibited smoking in public places including the outdoors and in individual's own private owned vehicles. Now smoked marijuana contains the same chemicals that cigarettes have and has been shown to have four times the carcinogens as a cigarette. Now I know that most cigarette smokers smoke from a pack (20 cigarettes) a day or more, which equates to 5 joints or more a day. Nonetheless the dangers are the same.

If we want marijuana for its medical effects we are looking at the compounddelta-9-tetrahydracannabinol (THC). It is all about the THC. THC from smoking a joint reaches the blood stream in about 30 minutes and has a half-life or about 6 - 8 hours. This means the analagesic effects are fast acting and last for short periods of time requiring multiple doses within a day to provide relief. Herein lies a problem something known as a dose-effect. The more a person uses a drug for pain, the less its dose lasts within the body, meaning that where once 4 joints could provide relief for a patient in a day, soon the dose needs to be increased.

Now, there is THC in a tablet form, this form has none of the respiratory effects of the smoked marijuana, so in that respect it is safer. In tablet form the THC reaches the blood stream in about 1 to 6 hours, which means that it is a little slower acting, however, it has a half-life in the blood steam of 20 - 36 hours. So whereas it may be slower acting it lasts longer requiring less doses per day. Even with dose-effect, the tablets per day required would never increase significantly as with the smoked marijuana.

Now, the problem with THC is the side-effect that are known. THC use can lead to acute toxic psychosis, depersonalization, paranoa, depression and in rare case extreme agressiveness. This occurs with both smoked and tablet form.

The APA (American Psychiatric Association) in its Diganostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders has a complete section on THC use, The mental disorders associated with its use include:

Cannabis Intoxication
Cannabis Intoxication Delirium
Cannabis Induced Psychotic Disorder
Cannabis Induced Anxiety Disorder

So it is clear that THC use effects the CNS (central nervous system) causing slow motor reflexes, increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, impairment of short-term memory, causes distortion in time perception, and interferes with a person's ability to interpret complex information.

This is the main reason that there is a debate within the medical community regarding the use of medical marijuana. Each night I watch on TV as one commercial after another appears regarding this law firm or that law firm wanting to sue a drug manufacturer for the side effects of various drugs. This drug can cause this or that so why not sue??? Yet not a one about THC, and since some of its side-effects are more extreme than the drugs mentioned I wonder why????

Drugs are pulled because of their side effects every day, some less serious than THC. I am sorry, but if we want to use marijuana as a drug, fine, then lets hold it to the same standard as other drugs, if we are only going to weigh its use on it effectiveness then we should only weigh all drugs on their effectiveness. To do anything less would be unequal.

dmk