112 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
112 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: alt.hemp
|
|
From: hughesg@netcom.com (Grant Hughes)
|
|
Subject: Medical Marijuana
|
|
Message-ID: <hughesgCFLG27.BHw@netcom.com>
|
|
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 06:15:43 GMT
|
|
|
|
The following is a widely distributed OP/ED piece addressing some of the
|
|
gross misinformation about the medical use of marijuana.
|
|
|
|
|
|
MARIJUANA SMOKING AS MEDICINE: A CRUEL HOAX
|
|
|
|
The anecdotal claims concerning the unique therapeutic properties of
|
|
marijuana smoking in alleviating the nausea and vomiting induced by the
|
|
chemotherapy of cancer or of AIDS do not withstand scientific scrutiny.
|
|
|
|
In the first place, modern therapeutics distinguish between a crude drug
|
|
and its pharmacological active pure ingredient, in this instance between
|
|
marijuana and THC. While crude marijuana preparations made of plant
|
|
material and containing THC display similar pharmacological properties as
|
|
THC, their overall effect is quite different. Indeed, marijuana contains
|
|
in addition to THC 60 other cannabinoids which modify absorption,
|
|
availability and transformation of THC in the body, and which are also
|
|
biologically active. Besides cannabinoids, 360 other compounds have been
|
|
identified in the plant material such as terpenes, flavinoids, furan
|
|
derivatives and alkaloids. The smoke if a marijuana cigarette contains in
|
|
its gas phase the noxious vapors of carbon monoxide, acetaldehyde,
|
|
acrolein, toluene, nitrosamine and vinylchloride, and in its particulate
|
|
phase phenol, creosol, methyl and napthalene. Marijuana smoke also
|
|
contains twice as many cancer producing substances (benzanthracene and
|
|
benzopyrene) as a tobacco cigarette of the same weight. The respective
|
|
amount of all of these different chemicals will vary with each marijuana
|
|
cigarette and its resulting smoke, therefore prescriptions of marijuana
|
|
cannot comply with the Pure Food and Drug Act, which requires that all
|
|
medicines be labeled with the exact amount of chemicals they contain. In
|
|
addition, crude drug marijuana preparation can also be contaminated with
|
|
salmonella bacteria which gives diarrhea and with a fungus, aspergillus,
|
|
which may cause severe bronchopneumonia (It has been suggested that the
|
|
marijuana cigarettes prescribed to patients be sterilized.).
|
|
|
|
Damaging effects in man caused by prolonged exposure to marijuana smoking
|
|
have been reported in two recent International Symposia; they include
|
|
emphysema-like symptoms, cancer of the lung, mouth and tongue, prolonged
|
|
impairment of memory and of psychomotor performance resulting in train or
|
|
car accidents, a six-fold increase in the incidence of schizophrenia,
|
|
leukemia in children born from marijuana smoking mothers and damage to the
|
|
growing fetus.
|
|
|
|
However, if smoked marijuana had unique therapeutic properties, these
|
|
forgoing undesired effects could be overlooked. Prominent cancer
|
|
specialists such as Dr. R. J. Gralla of Sloane-Kettering Memorial Cancer
|
|
Center, Dr. D. S. Ettinger of Johns Hopkins Medical School, Dr. George
|
|
Hyman of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Dr.
|
|
John Laszlo, Vice President for Research of the American Cancer Society
|
|
have concluded that the crude drug marijuana taken by inhalation has only
|
|
limited effectiveness in the treatment of vomiting caused by cancer
|
|
chemotherapy and documented negative effects on pulmonary, cardiovascular
|
|
and immunity systems. The American Cancer Society stated in 1989 that the
|
|
results of clinical investigations were insufficient to warrant the
|
|
decontrol of marijuana smoking for medical use. the American Medical
|
|
Association and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressed a similar
|
|
opinion.
|
|
|
|
The therapeutic applications of smoked marijuana have been traced down to
|
|
the psychoactive ingredient it contains: THC. This compound taken by
|
|
mouth will relieve the vomiting resulting from cancer chemotherapy in a
|
|
limited number of patients. But THC also produces acute undesirable
|
|
psychic and cardiovascular symptoms, and its depressant effect on immunity
|
|
is not a good indication for patients with cancer or AIDS who already have
|
|
impaired immunity. To treat nausea associated with chemotherapy, modern
|
|
drugs with much greater bioavailability, specificity, and effectiveness,
|
|
and less side effects than THC, such as metoclopramide and ondansetron,
|
|
have already been used on millions of patients. And these drugs have
|
|
become the preferred choice of the majority of physicians who wish to
|
|
treat their patients in the safest and most effective fashion. However,
|
|
THC, because of its therapeutic properties, has been reclassified from
|
|
Schedule I to Schedule II, which permits its prescription by physicians.
|
|
Marinol is one of the presently available preparations. But most other
|
|
countries, signatories of the Single Convention of the United Nations on
|
|
Controlled Substances, did not concur with the U.S. Reclassification and
|
|
kept THC in Schedule I, among drugs which have no unique therapeutic
|
|
usefulness and high abuse potential.
|
|
|
|
While the reclassification of THC to Schedule II might be understandable,
|
|
this would not be the case for smoking the crude drug marijuana, which
|
|
would as a result become more available and more readily diverted for
|
|
non-medical use.
|
|
|
|
There is no medical justification for the use of marijuana smoking in the
|
|
treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with cancer or AIDS
|
|
chemotherapy. Other claims formulated in the prescientific area of
|
|
medicine concerning the therapeutic properties of marijuana smoking for
|
|
epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia, chronic pain, pruritis,
|
|
menstrual cramps, and labor pain are purely hearsay and may even be
|
|
harmful to the patient. Such claims have been nonetheless recently
|
|
revived by the same Harvard professor who has also stated that 'used no
|
|
more than two or three times a week, cocaine creates no serious problem.'
|
|
His latest book, "Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine," is a loose
|
|
compendium of unverifiable anecdotes.
|
|
|
|
The unilateral reclassification by the United States of marijuana from
|
|
Schedule I to II would perpetuate a cruel hoax by sending the wrong
|
|
message to uninformed patients and health professionals who rely on safe
|
|
and effective medicine. There is no medical justification for the use of
|
|
marijuana smoking in the treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with
|
|
cancer or AIDS chemotherapy."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gabriel G. Nahas, M.D.
|
|
Nicholas A. Pace, M.D.
|
|
New York University Medical Center
|