My Opinion on Medical Marijuana

After writing articles recently on Morphine and prescription drugs used and abused as pain killers, I believe Marijuana is a better alternative. I do not have any personal experience with marijuana used for pain relief, but I was friends with a man whose wife used it before she died of complications from kidney failure.

His young wife first developed diabetes, then a heart attack. The medicine given to her for the heart attack killed her kidneys. She then had to endure dialysis three times a day at home. At the end she was nearly blind, and most of her body had stopped working. She was not even 45. He told me how much marijuana had helped her cope with the nausea, pain, and symptoms of her declining health. They did not get it legally, but from a friend who grew it out in the Colorado mountains. If it helped her with the debilitating disease pain, and made life tolerable, why did she have to obtain Marijuana illegally?

Morphine, OxyCotin, and other more dangerous pain killers are given to patients everyday. I think marijuana is probably less toxic, cheaper and safer. You don't inject marijuana either which prevents aids transmission and blown veins. According to physicians, it is very effective in treating the pain and nausea of AIDS, cancer patients, and other diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

There are many doctors both in favor and against using marijuana as a pain killer. I read a lot of research on the problems, addictions, and black market use of Morphine, Heroin, and OxyContin which are all opium derived. The drugs listed above are prescribed by current doctors to treat pain. I believe Marijuana is a safer alternative pain treatment.

Among the pro comments I read during my research, here is one from Lester Grinspoon, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who stated in his article "The Medical Marijuana Problem," published in Cannabis Health in Mar./Apr. 2006:"There are many thousands of patients who currently use cannabis as a medicine...There is no question about its safety. It is one of humanity's oldest medicines, used for thousands of years by millions of people, with very little evidence of significant toxic effects. More is known about its adverse effects than about those of most prescription drugs."

According to a number of research reports on the use of medical marijuana, it has the least withdrawal symptoms of currently used pain killing prescription drugs, even in higher dosages. There are less dependence issues according to the research, and it is more easily tolerated by most patients. I feel patients should use it with the supervision of a doctor who is monitoring their overall disease and its symptoms. I think it should be legalized and regulated, so patients get a pure product. I feel it is a much better alternative to morphine, heroin, and OxyCotin where the drug overdose death rate is sky rocketing.

Deaths from opioid drugs such as morphine, heroin and OxyCotin tripled from 4000 in 1999 to 13,000 in 2006. Forty per cent of all poisoning deaths in the US in 2006 were caused from the abuse of opioid painkillers. These figures do not take into account the problem in black market drug traffic, hepatitis and AIDs transmission from used syringes.

Marijuana is not injected which is an advantage in regards to AIDS transmission and there are few deaths caused by the use of Marijuana. This does not mean its usage does not come without side effects. Still in my opinion, Marijuana should be legalized for use in pain management in certain diseases and to relieve dying patients. Visit the website below for some very excellent pros and cons on this subject, then make up your own mind.

References:

Pro-con.org on marijuana use: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=000141

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxycodone

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=000141

WebMD Medical Reference: "Opioid Analgesics for Chronic Pain."
Hall, A.J., Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec. 10, 2008; vol 300: pp 2613-2620.