Medical use is legitimate.  Marijuana has a long and distinguished history as medicine, stretching back to at least 5000 BC when it was one of three primary drugs favored in ancient China.¹

 Doctors recognize that marijuana offers unique therapeutic benefits.  In spite of substantial risk, doctors today still recommend marijuana for nausea, vomiting, muscle spasticity, pain, and other ailments in patients who do not respond well to pharmaceuticals.²

 Scientists recognize that marijuana is an effective medicine.  Otherwise, why would one of the active ingredients in marijuana, tetrahydrocannibinol (THC), be cloned into a pharmaceutical drug?  Why would drug companies engage in research to patent more such drugs?

 Abuse is no argument against proper use.  Many drugs that can be abused, such as pain medications, sleeping pills, and tranquilizers, remain legally available to those who need them, in spite of recreational use and abuse.

“People vary in their responses to medications and there will likely always be a sub-population of patients who do not respond well to other medications.  The combination cannabinoid drug effects (anxiety reduction, appetite stimulation, nausea reduction, and pain relief) suggests that cannabinoids would be moderately well suited for certain conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and AIDS Wasting.” ¹²

The human body contains natural receptor sites for cannabinoids.  When produced inside the body, chemicals serving these receptors are called “anandamides.”  Anandamides play important roles in human physiology, including pain modulation, appetite, control of movement, and memory.  Marijuana is the only known natural source of cannabinoids for persons who may not be able to produce enough within their own bodies.

“We acknowledge that there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting

One of marijuana’s natural ingredients-tetrahydrocannabino, or THC – has been synthetically reproduced as a prescription drug, usually marketed as Marinol.  But the benefits of marijuana do not derive just from THC.  Other active ingredients contribute to marijuana’s usefulness.  Marinol is to marijuana is what a Vitamin C pill is to fresh fruit.

Studies show that patients who do not obtain relief from Marinol do find relief with marijuana.  Also, nauseated or vomiting persons can’t swallow pills.¹

THC is the main intoxicating ingredient in marijuana.  Other active ingredients in marijuana reduce the intoxicating effects of THC, so patients using the pill become more intoxicated than patients using marijuana.  Patients have more dosage control with marijuana because smoking produces immediate effects, providing relief without intoxications.

Other active ingredients – not THC – provide the desired therapeutic benefit for a variety of debilitating medical conditions such as muscle spasticity.

Marijuana can be produced by patients or their caregivers at  little or no cost, a critical factor for low income persons, health insurers, and taxpayers supporting Medicare/Medicaid.  Marinol is expensive at $600 to $1000 per month.

Patients registered in the program will be unlikely to risk their health, legal status, and standing in the program by allowing others to use their supplies.

Patients producing their own supply of marijuana for medical use will be secretive and protective of their plants to avoid risk of theft.

Caregivers for patients who cannot obtain, use, produce, or otherwise facilitate their own procurement and use of marijuana for medicine would be carefully chosen by patients.  Such a caregiver would be aware that inappropriate activity with the patient’s marijuana would result in hardship for the patient in addition to criminal sanctions for him/herself.  The program should include guidelines for prospective patients about choosing the best caregiver from among family members or acquaintances.

Anyone who wants marijuana is already able to easily obtain it.

Patients currently receiving supplies of prescription drugs with lucrative “street market” values are not kept from need medications even though there are significant risks of diversion.

Dangerous drugs such as morphine, tranquilizers, and pain medications are in common medical usage in spite of society’s wish that children not use them.

Children routinely see adults using substances that are forbidden to children, such as alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs.

Children have not been protected from exposure and access to marijuana by its prohibition.

“Even if there were evidence that the medical use of marijuana would decrease the perception that it can be a harmful substance, this is beyond the scope of laws regulating the approval of therapeutic drugs.”¹

“Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically-active substances known to man,” stated The Honorable Francis Young, Administrative Law Judge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, in his 1989 decision in favor of making marijuana medically available, following extensive review of all marijuana research. ¹

Marijuana can produce dependence in a minority of users.  However, “this potential is observed under narrower range of conditions than with benzodiazepines (eg. Valium), opiates, cocaine, or nicotine.” ²

The so-called “gateway” effect has been debunked in every study conducted on marijuana.  Most recently, a distinguished panel of scientists and physicians concluded that “underage smoking and alcohol use typically precede marijuana use, [and therefore] marijuana is not the most common and is rarely the first “gateway” to illicit drug use.  There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.”³

Many drugs in common medical use are more dangerous than marijuana.  No deaths have ever been attributed to marijuana. ⁴. The substance is “non-toxic”-no threat of overdose of fatal drug interactions.

Many drugs in use today have not met Food and Drug Administration approval, including aspirin and sulfa drugs.  These drugs, like marijuana, were in common use before the FDA existed. ¹

Hundreds of studies have been conducted on marijuana.  None of this extensive research has shown marijuana to be a causative agent for cancer or other disease. ².

FDA approval does not mean that a drug is safe.  Many FDA-approved drugs are removed from the market due to unexpected side effects and death.  Marijuana has been safely used by millions of people in many world civilizations over thousands of years.

FDA approval requires millions of dollars in research and testing.  Drug companies conducting such research expect to recoup their costs when the drug is sold.  But drug companies will not invest in marijuana tests because they would not regain their expense.  Many patients will grow their own.

Patients have the inalienable right to life, which includes freedom to choose personal healthcare. ³