By Alexandra D. Datig
I have often said there is a place for medical marijuana if
a pharmaceutical approach can be found that is safe and effective. I have also never been against aiding the dying or
those who suffer from debilitating illnesses and are desperate to find relief
for his or her pain. For some reason, however, when I speak in
support of that argument, I feel like I am baited into a different discussion.
My friend Roger Morgan, founder of the Take Back AmericaCampaign, explained in a correspondence earlier today, that in the late 1970’s the term "medical marijuana" was
coined by Keith Stroup, founder of NORML, as a red herring to give marijuana a good
name as a first step towards full legalization.
Although the FDA’s scheduling process list marijuana as a schedule
one drug, seen as having no medicinal value, this may not necessarily be the
case. Over the past decade, we have
learned that there are in fact medical properties in marijuana that do show
promise in children that use CBD,
also called cannabidiol, for a variety of central nervous system
disorders. CBDs are the non-psychoactive
ingredient in marijuana, meaning they do not cause the user to get high.
According to my friend Roger Morgan who is a world-renowned drug prevention expert, marijuana is comprised of 483 chemicals that turn into 2,000 when smoked, and 61 cannabinoids. Of the 61 cannabinoids, only one isolated cannabinoid, appears to have medicinal value. The problem is with the other 60, and their chemicals, which are known to cause brain damage, mental illness, birth defects, addiction and myriad of health problems.
According to my friend Roger Morgan who is a world-renowned drug prevention expert, marijuana is comprised of 483 chemicals that turn into 2,000 when smoked, and 61 cannabinoids. Of the 61 cannabinoids, only one isolated cannabinoid, appears to have medicinal value. The problem is with the other 60, and their chemicals, which are known to cause brain damage, mental illness, birth defects, addiction and myriad of health problems.
GW Pharmaceuticals created a medical grade marijuana known
as Sativex based on the science of CBD research, which was approved by the United
Kingdom version of the FDA and is available in England by prescription. Sativex, which is an oil-based, mint flavored
oral spray, has yet to pass the scrutiny test with the FDA because marijuana’s efficacy
is unreliable thus far and does not meet the standards of the FDA. On the flip side, while Sativex is going
through the FDA’s clinical trails, marijuana profiteers and unethical marijuana
doctors are making millions off of crude, toxin exposed, highly potent and untested as well as unregulated so-called medical marijuana because it is seen by many
as a free for all to get high. Ironically, none of these snake oil salesmen can tell an inexperienced user which strain or which THC potency is the
right one to use. The question is, what
will this experiment of public fraud eventually cost in terms of long-term
health consequences and harms?
I think we’re far away from being able to find common ground
on what is reasonable and most of all what is safe when evaluating the
arguments about marijuana. We also know
that marijuana advocates aren’t wasting any time and have engineered a
deliberately misleading clash in their dialogue by promoting recreational use
through the guise of medicine. One example of this was Montell Williams who was recently on Piers Morgan. If the
medical marijuana establishment has done one thing in terms of educating the
public about marijuana, it has sent the message that medical marijuana is the back
door for marijuana abuse through contrived non-medical purposes. As for the research on CBDs, I agree with my
friend Roger Morgan who says hopefully research should never stop trying to perfect it for whatever
therapeutic value it may have.
