23 of the United States, plus the District of Columbia and Guam, currently have programs for medical treatment with marijuana or cannabis compounds. Seventeen other states allow limited use of marijuana with low levels of THC, the psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants. Many of these new state laws were enacted by voter initiative; i.e., the laws did not begin with lawmakers, the laws were changed by the voters. This is largely the result of a more informed electorate, as well as shared personal experiences that have neutralized the fear mongering that lead to the criminalization of cannabis. By informing readers about the documented history, science, and therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana, this paper is intended to help the public distinguish facts from fiction, and truth from superstition in order to make rational, well-informed decisions on this issue for their states, as well as the many cancer patients, children with epilepsy, glaucoma sufferers, and chemotherapy patients who have been proven to benefit from its properties. Clearly, the human cost of withholding effective therapies from those in need could be seen as reason enough. But there are clear, documented, and scientifically sound reasons why medical cannabis should be approved for use by physicians in the treatment of their patients. Marijuana should be reclassified as a federally-approved, therapeutic option for physicians and their patients, and its medical use legalized by all U.S. states and territories.
The science behind medical marijuana may not be interesting to many people, and it may be difficult to fully grasp by some, but it is important to discuss it. Because science is at the core of why cannabis was the most widely prescribed medicines in this country until the late 1930s, and why it provides its unique therapeutic benefits to so many patients.
Those who say that marijuana is a “miracle drug” regard medical marijuana as a safe and effective form of treatment because it relieves nausea, vomiting, pain, increase appetite, and relax muscles. Anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs can cause nausea and vomiting, because they irritate the stomach lining and affect the areas of the brain that control vomiting. Patients usually receive drugs to help them relieve these side effects, but there is no single, best approach that relieves everything. In contrast, medical marijuana is effective against multiple side effects. According to Live Science Contributor, Kim Ann Zimmermann:
"Marijuana contains 60 active ingredients known as cannabinoids to modulate pain […] The primary psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana is THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. THC targets the CB1 receptor, a cannabinoid receptor found primarily in the brain, but also in the nervous system, liver, kidneys and lungs. The CB1 receptor is activated to quiet the response to pain or noxious chemicals."
The American Cancer Society and the Food and Drug Administration have both acknowledged that THC is a therapy for symptoms and side effects in cancer patients. Two FDA-approved, chemically altered forms of THC, dronabinol and nabilone, have been shown to reduce chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting in cancer patients. These compounds were actually found to slow the growth and spread of cancer cells as far back as the 1970s.
More recently, in 2007, researchers at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco reported Cannabidiol (CBD) actually stops cancer by “switching off” the Id-1 gene. Cancer cells make more copies of this gene than healthy cells do, and this mechanism helps cancer metastasize, or spread through the body. Other studies, done in the U.S., Spain and Israel indicate that additional compounds found in cannabis successfully kill cancer cells.
One drug-manufacturing company, e-Therapeutics, identified Dexanibol (a synthetic cannabinoid discovered in the 1980s) anti-cancer potential by “network pharmacology.” Rather than designing a selective compound to hit a particular target, the company takes a more holistic approach to drug discovery by looking at whole networks of proteins in a cell to look at what can go wrong in complex diseases. Emma Dorey, writer for Chemistry & Industry sums up the research done by this particular company, “The usual approach of targeting just one protein results in relatively little effect […] Complex systems have an intrinsic robustness” (Dorey 17). Instead, the company uses real data on known protein-on-protein interactions to map the network of proteins involved in a disease - in this case, the processes around apoptosis in cancer. Algorithms are then used to highlight the optimal set of points in the networks that would be best to disrupt for maximum effect. A database of drug-protein interactions identifies the pharmaceutically active substances that are likely to act on those points.
As “cutting edge” as this research may seem, cannabis has proven to be a highly effective treatment for many maladies dating back to 2900 B.C. in ancient China. Its effectiveness is well-documented in the Chinese Pharmacopeia of 1500 B.C. The Egyptians used cannabis to treat glaucoma at least as far back as 1200 B.C.—cannabis pollen was even found on the mummified body of Rameses the Great. Pliny the Elder, of ancient Rome, documented the effectiveness of the boiled root of the cannabis plant in the treatment of a variety of muscle pains and the discomfort of gout in 79 A.D. During the Dark Ages, Cannabis was an essential among herbalists, Muslim physicians prescribed it; and Queen Victoria reportedly took tincture of cannabis for menstrual cramps.
In 1930 federal bureaucrats launched a campaign of prohibition against cannabis, changed its name to marijuana, and criminalized all use despite the protests of the American Medical Association. Although alcohol probation was repealed in 1933, the prohibition against cannabis remains in effect to the present day, ignoring thousands of years of documented medical benefits, leaving hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children with no access to its therapeutic relief, and filling the nation’s prisons with nonviolent citizens who privately grew, bought, and consumed cannabis for their own personal needs.
Since its criminalization, the belief was propagated that marijuana is a “gateway drug.” In other words, users of marijuana are significantly more likely to become addicted to marijuana itself as well as other, more dangerous drugs, e.g., heroin and cocaine. There is some correlation between hard drug abuse and recreational marijuana use, but there is no evidence that marijuana is the actual gating factor. Rather it has been found that the user’s genetic predisposition, condition of his/her prefrontal cortex, and neurological chemistry are the actual causes of addiction. In addition, marijuana itself is not highly addictive. Research has demonstrated that cannabis has a 9% addiction rate, compared to the 30% rate of tobacco, 25% for heroin, and the 20% addiction rate of cocaine. Strange, considering cocaine is classified by federal bureaucrats as only a Schedule 2 substance by law.
The facts do not fit the perception that marijuana is dangerous, a perception that has been carefully cultivated out of ignorance for over 40 years. The carcinogenic effects of marijuana are certainly troubling, but unlike tobacco products, marijuana also provides significant and verified medical benefits. The decision is, which is the greater threat to a patient? That should clearly be the decision of the patient in conjunction with his/her doctor, not the decision of sadly uninformed lawmakers with questionable agendas.
