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The Boston Globe LESTER GRINSPOON
Marijuana as wonder drug
By Lester Grinspoon | March 1, 2007
A NEW STUDY in the journal Neurology is being hailed as
unassailableproof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a
sad commentary onthe state of modern medicine -- and US drug policy
-- that we still need"proof" of something that medicine has known
for 5,000 years.
The study, from the University of California at San Francisco,
foundsmoked marijuana to be effective at relieving the extreme pain
of adebilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy. It was a
study ofHIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage
to nervesafflicts people with many other illnesses including
diabetes andmultiple sclerosis. Neuropathic pain is notoriously
resistant totreatment with conventional pain drugs. Even powerful
and addictivenarcotics like morphine and OxyContin often provide
little relief. Thisstudy leaves no doubt that marijuana can safely
ease this type of pain.
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As all marijuana research in the United States must be, the new
studywas conducted with government-supplied marijuana of
notoriously poorquality. So it probably underestimated the
potential benefit.
This is all good news, but it should not be news at all. In the
40-oddyears I have been studying the medicinal uses of marijuana, I
havelearned that the recorded history of this medicine goes back to
ancienttimes and that in the 19th century it became a
well-established Westernmedicine whose versatility and safety were
unquestioned. From 1840 to1900, American and European medical
journals published over 100 paperson the therapeutic uses of
marijuana, also known as cannabis.
Of course, our knowledge has advanced greatly over the years.
Scientistshave identified over 60 unique constituents in marijuana,
calledcannabinoids, and we have learned much about how they work.
We have alsolearned that our own bodies produce similar chemicals,
calledendocannabinoids.
The mountain of accumulated anecdotal evidence that pointed the
way tothe present and other clinical studies also strongly suggests
there area number of other devastating disorders and symptoms for
which marijuanahas been used for centuries; they deserve the same
kind of careful,methodologically sound research. While few such
studies have so far been
completed, all have lent weight to what medicine already knew
but hadlargely forgotten or ignored: Marijuana is effective at
relieving nauseaand vomiting, spasticity, appetite loss, certain
types of pain, andother debilitating symptoms. And it is
extraordinarily safe -- saferthan most medicines prescribed every
day. If marijuana were a newdiscovery rather than a well-known
substance carrying cultural andpolitical baggage, it would be
hailed as a wonder drug.
The pharmaceutical industry is scrambling to isolate
cannabinoids andsynthesize analogs, and to package them in
non-smokable forms. In time,companies will almost certainly come up
with products and deliverysystems that are more useful and less
expensive than herbal marijuana.However, the analogs they have
produced so far are more expensive than
herbal marijuana, and none has shown any improvement over the
plantnature gave us to take orally or to smoke.
We live in an antismoking environment. But as a method of
deliveringcertain medicinal compounds, smoking marijuana has some
real advantages:The effect is almost instantaneous, allowing the
patient, who after allis the best judge, to fine-tune his or her
dose to get the needed reliefwithout intoxication. Smoked marijuana
has never been demonstrated tohave serious pulmonary consequences,
but in any case the technology toinhale these cannabinoids without
smoking marijuana already exists asvaporizers that allow for
smoke-free inhalation.
Hopefully the UCSF study will add to the pressure on the US
government
to rethink its irrational ban on the medicinal use of marijuana
-- andits destructive attacks on patients and caregivers in states
that havechosen to allow such use. Rather than admit they have been
mistaken allthese years, federal officials can cite "important new
data" and startrevamping outdated and destructive policies. The new
Congress could gofar in establishing its bona fides as both
reasonable and compassionateby immediately moving on this
issue.
Such legislation would bring much-needed relief to millions of
Americanssuffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis,
arthritis, and other
