Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jun 2014
Source: Expositor, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Brantford Expositor
Contact: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/letters
Website: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1130
Author: Tim Philp
Page: A8

HIGH TIME FOR A SCIENTIFIC LOOK AT MARIJUANA

It has been said that if you can remember the ' 60s, you weren't
there, referring to the drug counter culture that became mainstream at
that time.

I guess I lived a dull life back then because I remember the decade
well.

There has been a tremendous change in the public attitude toward the
use of certain drugs and the supposed medical benefits to be gained by
their use. Nowhere has this been truer than the debate around medical
marijuana.

The debates that have been raging about marijuana have, not to put too
fine a point on it, generated a lot more smoke than light. What is
most often missing from the discussion is a scientific viewpoint.
While there are always issues of personal freedom and a lot of
misinformation about the supposed benefits of marijuana, that is not
the view that is likely to provide some understanding of the drug and
its possible benefits to pain relief for serious illnesses.

The active ingredient in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol ( THC).
This is the chemical that is responsible for the "high" that users
experience. It has been demonized for decades as a gateway drug and,
most amusingly, a drug that will make you insane. For a good laugh, go
on YouTube and have a look at an old film called Reefer Madness. What
is new, however, are recent scientific discoveries about the
properties of THC in fighting disease and the mechanisms by which this
occurs.

Marijuana is currently prescribed, and successfully used to fight the
nausea and vomiting that can occur with certain types of cancer
treatments. It can also be used to counteract the effects of the
wasting syndrome that is experienced by some AIDS patients. It is also
prescribed to combat the chronic pain that cannot be controlled by the
more conventional treatments of strong painkiller drugs like morphine.
The prescription can take the form of actual plant material that is
smoked, or a spray containing the active ingredient that is taken orally.

Recently, scientists at The University of South Carolina have
discovered a new way in which THC can suppress the body's immune
functions. While it may seem to be counterintuitive that a medication
that can suppress the immune system could be useful, but it is of
great utility in cases where the human body's immune system has run
amok. Illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, arthritis, colitis, and
lupus are all diseases where the body attacks healthy tissue in error.
The suppression ability of THC on the immune system has been shown in
clinical studies to help relieve the symptoms of these illnesses and
to improve the quality of life for these patients.

What the new studies have shown is that there is another pathway for
controlling disease. Most people are aware that DNA, expressed as
genes, can affect how the body functions. It seems that it is also
possible for outside chemical influences to cause alterations in the
functions of these genes. The study showed that THC was able to use
these gene pathways to reduce inflammation in ways that more
conventional treatments cannot.

With such clinically proven benefits, it is interesting that THC is
not more widely available as a treatment for disease. There appears to
be two reasons for this. The first is that THC is an illegal drug in
most of the world and that attaches a stigma to research into the
chemical and biological characteristics of the drug. Because of the
intoxicating effects, marijuana is the most abused drug in the world.
This provides the potential that THC that is prescribed for a medical
condition could be abused for recreational rather than medicinal purposes.

Second, there have been a growing number of people who have claimed
miraculous properties for THC as a cure- all for almost anything that
ails you. The suspicion is that the real purpose behind these
testimonial "cures" is simply to provide some legitimate basis to use
the drug to get high. While there may indeed be wonderful medicinal
properties to marijuana, it does not help anyone to make claims
without scientific studies, such as the ones being done at The
University of South Carolina, to back up these extraordinary claims.

Health care and the drugs used to treat illness should be a matter for
the scientific and medical community to decide - all the rest is just
noise.
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MAP posted-by: Matt