Pubdate: Sun, 20 Apr 2014
Source: Times-Tribune, The (Scranton PA)
Copyright: 2014 Townnews.com
Contact:  http://www.thetimes-tribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4440
Author: Gregory L. Gerdeman
Note: GREGORY L. GERDEMAN is an assistant professor of biology at 
Eckerd College who has studied the effects of cannabis on the brain 
for more than 15 years.
Note: From the Tampa Bay Times
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Page: G8

SCIENCE IS CLEAR: POT IS MEDICINE

There appears to be growing support in the Florida Legislature to 
legalize a type of marijuana that won't get you high but offers 
medical benefits for a range of maladies, including uncontrollable 
seizures in children.

House Bill 843, like similar bills being considered in other states, 
represents a new twist in our national history of redefining 
marijuana to achieve political goals. The bill would legalize strains 
of cannabis with extremely low levels of THC and high levels of a 
sister compound called cannabidiol, or CBD. Cannabidiol is close to 
THC in molecular structure but without the psychoactive effects. 
Studies have shown that when both are present, as in most 
recreational marijuana, CBD even works to counteract the THC-induced high.

It's not entirely clear why. Science has dedicated far more attention 
to understanding THC and its infamous psychoactivity. For decades, 
government funds - and the only legal supplies of cannabis for 
researchers - have been reserved for scientists who test presumptions 
that marijuana is dangerous. Studying cannabidiol doesn't fit that paradigm.

Regardless, supporting the legalization of non-euphoric medical 
marijuana allows lawmakers to care for suffering kids without having 
to acknowledge that the more traditional strains, rich in 
euphoria-inducing THC, are also a source of legitimate medicine with 
greater scientific backing.

This is not criticism of the motivations behind the bill. It would 
help many people who are genuinely suffering, albeit only a subset of 
those who could benefit from a wider range of physician-recommended 
cannabis-based medicines.

The public appears to accept what its elected officials do not: 
Marijuana is medicine, even the kind that gets you high. The science 
is indisputable.

It also is very old. Cannabis-based medicines were widely used in 
this country before marijuana prohibition, and the FDA did not 
object. Every major pharmaceutical company formulated medicine with 
marijuana in it.

Gold-standard clinical studies found THC-rich marijuana to be useful 
for certain chronic pain conditions while also being safe and well 
tolerated. More such trials should be supported to test therapeutic 
claims. Nonetheless, it is universally recognized that as medicines 
go, overall safety of marijuana is not a big concern. By contrast, 
thousands die annually from widely used opiate painkillers. Even 
aspirin kills hundreds of Americans each year.

And marijuana? By any credible interpretation, the number is 
somewhere between zero and a whole lot less than aspirin.

Propaganda-based marijuana laws need to be held to the measure of 
21st-century evidence-based cannabis science.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom